Air India Crash: Fuel Switches Cut Off – Live Updates
air India Crash: Pilots Under Scrutiny as Preliminary Report Reveals cockpit Dialog
Soutik Biswas, India Correspondent
Published at 04:44 British summer Time
A preliminary report into the tragic Air India crash has brought the two pilots at the controls into sharp focus, revealing a tense exchange in the cockpit just moments after takeoff. the dialogue, captured by cockpit audio, raises critical questions about the sequence of events that led to the disaster.
“Why did you do the cut-off?” one pilot is heard asking the other, referring to the fuel switch that ultimately starved the engines. The response, chillingly, was: “I didn’t.” The report, however, does not yet clarify who uttered which line, leaving a crucial piece of the puzzle unsolved.
Here’s what we know about the crew members who where at the helm of the ill-fated flight.
The Crew: A Closer Look
captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a seasoned aviator with 30 years of experience at Air India, was 56 years old at the time of the incident. He had accumulated an extraordinary 15,638 flying hours, with a significant portion, 8,596 hours, spent at the controls of the Boeing 787. Based in Mumbai, Captain Sabharwal was reportedly looking forward to his retirement and lived with his elderly father.
First Officer Clive Kunder, aged 32, had a total of 3,403 flying hours to his name, including 1,128 hours on the Dreamliner. He had joined Air India in 2017, fulfilling a lifelong ambition to fly that began in his school days.
Both pilots were based in Mumbai and had arrived in Ahmedabad the day before the flight, having had adequate rest, according to the report. On the day of the flight, Kunder was designated as the pilot flying, while Sabharwal served as the pilot monitoring.
The report also confirmed that the crew had successfully passed pre-flight breathalyser tests. CCTV footage from the gate showed them present before they boarded the aircraft, indicating they were fit to fly at the outset of their journey. the investigation continues to piece together the full narrative of this devastating event.