The final interaction of the pilot of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that crashed and killed 260 has been revealed.
The wait for the answers of the cause of the crash to be provided has been a struggle for many close to the victims.
But more and more information is coming to light amid the extensive investigation into the Air India fatal crash.
Bound for London Gatwick, Air India Flight AI171 crashed just 30 seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India.
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With 242 people on board, devastation struck hundreds of families when the plane went down.
Among those on board, 169 were Indian nationals, 53 were British nationals, one Canadian national and seven Portuguese nationals, according to Air India.
Of those on the plane, 241 people died, leaving one passenger, 40-year-old Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, as the sole survivor.
An investigation into the crash by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), revealed a preliminary report on July 11.
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India’s AAIB found that the fuel control switches of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had been flipped, which ultimately starved the engines of fuel.
There was also reports that a conversation could be heard in the cockpit between the co-pilot and pilot disagreeing over the switch to the fuels.
Sumeet Sabharwal was the pilot in question, and according to The Sun, the cockpit recordings heard the co-pilot asking moments before disaster struck: “Why did you cut off?”
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Sabharwal replied, apparently calm: “I didn’t.”
As the report did not assign blame to anyone in the cockpit of flipping the switches, it can only be speculated that Sabharwal was or was not the instigator of the crash.
But a conversation he had before boarding the flight has been dubbed as chilling.
According to his security guard at his Mumbai apartment complex, he could have never known of what was to come after their short conversation.
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“Please, take care of papa. I will be back soon,” the 56-year-old pilot allegedly told guard Sunil Lokhande, as per The Telegraph.
Lokhande, guarded Sabharwal’s residence in Jal Vayu Vihar, Mumbai, and said how he understands this to be the pilot’s final goodbye.
He told The Telegraph: "I can’t forget that last moment, when he ran his hand through his hair, like he always did, and said, ‘How are you Mr Lokhande. Please, take care of papa, and I will be back soon.’
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“He smiled and went away. You’d never guess he carried any sadness inside.”
This comes after investigators say the pilot may have manually flipped both guarded fuel switches to the ‘cut-off’ position.
US investigators also said that the switches were flipped one second apart before being restarted 10 seconds later in an attempt to restart the engines.
Because of this, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into a hotel housing medical students just 30 seconds later.
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But three days before the crash, Sabharwal’s former colleague Neil Pais told The Telegraph that he had made plans for an early retirement to take care of his ailing father.
He said: “He was actually considering early retirement in the next couple of years.
“His father is very old, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan.”
As Sabharwal’s mental health is now under review, it has been reported that the pilot struggles with the passing of his mother in 2022, and he had also separated from his wife and moved from Dehli to Mumbai to be closer to his dad.
Topics: Air India, India, Travel, World News
Britt Jones