Photos of Air India Crash Pilots and Crew Released
The first images and identities of the pilots and cabin crew aboard the doomed Air India Flight 171, which tragically crashed just moments after takeoff, have been made public.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a seasoned pilot with over 8,200 hours of flight experience, was in command of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
He was assisted by First Officer Clive Kunder, a Mumbai native with 1,100 flight hours under his belt, who completed his training at the Paris Air Flight School in Florida.
The cabin crew has also been named. Among them were Nganthoi Sharma Kongbrailatpam and Lamnunthem Singson, as well as senior crew members Shradha Dhavan, Aparna Mahadik, Saineeta Chakravarti, Deepak Pathak, Maithili Patil, Irfan Shaikh, Roshni Songhare Rajendra, and Manisha Thapa.
One of the few glimmers of hope from the tragedy is the survival of Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British national and father.
Believed to be the sole survivor, Ramesh recounted his terrifying experience from his hospital bed after escaping the wreckage.
“I was sitting in seat 11A,” he told local reporters. “Just thirty seconds after takeoff, there was a loud bang—and then the crash.
It was so fast. When I got up, there were bodies everywhere. I ran. Someone pulled me into an ambulance and brought me here.”
The aircraft was carrying 242 passengers, including 53 Britons, 159 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese citizens, and one Canadian.
Eleven children were among the passengers, including two newborns.
The crash, which occurred in a residential neighborhood shortly after departure, is feared to have claimed the lives of most onboard. Investigations into the cause of the crash are ongoing.
Photos of Air India Crash Pilots and Crew Released