The first images and names of the flight crew aboard the doomed Air India Flight 171, which crashed shortly after takeoff, have been released, shedding light on the faces behind the devastating tragedy.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a seasoned pilot with over 8,200 flying hours, was confirmed as the captain of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
First Officer Clive Kunder, hailing from Mumbai, was co-piloting the aircraft.
Kunder had clocked 1,100 hours in the air and completed his training at Paris Air Flight School in Florida.
Among the cabin crew were Nganthoi Sharma Kongbrailatpam and Lamnunthem Singson, as well as several senior flight attendants, including Shradha Dhavan, Aparna Mahadik, Saineeta Chakravarti, Deepak Pathak, Maithili Patil, Irfan Shaikh, Roshni Songhare Rajendra, and Manisha Thapa.
The crash is believed to have claimed hundreds of lives, with the plane reportedly going down in a residential neighbourhood just moments after takeoff.
Miraculously, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, a 40-year-old British father, is thought to be the sole survivor. Speaking from his hospital bed, he recounted the terrifying moment the crash occurred:
“Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly. When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran. There were pieces of the plane everywhere. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance.”
Ramesh, who had been seated in 11A, is now recovering in the hospital.
Flight 171 had 242 people on board, including 53 Britons, 159 Indians, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian. Among the passengers were 11 children, including two newborns.
