Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was the pilot of the Air India Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that crashed just 30 seconds after takeoff from Ahmedabad, killing 241 of the 242 people onboard. Only one person survived.
Sabharwal was a veteran with nearly 30 years of flying experience and over 8,200 flight hours. A fellow pilot described him as “a very quiet, diligent man” who flew Airbus A310s, Boeing 777s, and the Dreamliner.
Before the flight, Sabharwal called his family and promised to call again after landing in London. Sadly, that call never came. “My sister-in-law was going to London. Within an hour, I got news that the plane had crashed,” said a relative of a passenger.
The 54-year-old captain had also planned to take time off to visit his 82-year-old father, a retired official from India’s aviation regulator.
The aircraft, delivered to Air India in 2014, crashed shortly after takeoff, also killing some people on the ground. The tragic incident has left families devastated and sparked widespread mourning.
