The pilot of the Air India flight that tragically crashed in Ahmedabad has been hailed as a hero for diverting the plane away from a block of flats. Residents of the building have said they owe their lives to Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Captain Clive Kunder, who avoided their homes and instead landed in a patch of grassland, destroying the top two floors of a disused military building.
The explosion upon impact ripped through the accommodation of a nearby medical college, killing dozens of students in the canteen. The Mumbai-born captain, 55, was very experienced, with 8,200 hours of time in the air. He was the son of an officer of India’s civil aviation authority, and was his main carer. His colleagues described him as a “good, quiet person”.
Geeta Patni, who lives next to the crash site, told The Sun: “The building was shaking. We were so scared. Any closer and we would have died. The pilot saved us. We have always worried this might happen because the planes go over so low.”
Another resident, Jahanvi Rajput, 28, said: “Thanks to the pilot Captain Sabharwal, we survived. He’s a hero. It is because of him we are alive. The green space next to us was visible to him and that’s where he went.”
Mum-of-two Chancal Bai, 50, said: “If the plane had crashed into this residential area, there would have been hundreds more victims.”
Of the 270 dead, only 32 have been identified. The engine has been removed from the site and sent to the US for analysis. The first funeral service for a British victim was held yesterday, for Elcina Alpesh Makwana, 42, of Hounslow in West London.
Her uncle said: “Before take-off, she called her father to say she’d boarded safely and would call once she landed in London. That call never came. She vanished, leaving us in shock, in tears, unable to believe what we’re hearing.”