Air India crash: An unkept promise of the pilot

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar, pilots of the ill-fated Air India Flight AI-171, were both experienced with wide-bodied aircraft, logging over 9,000 flying hours between them, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner crashed shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad’s Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport on Thursday, killing all but one of the 242 passengers and crew on board died besides causing extensive damage to a residential area.

Captain Sabharwal, based in Powai, Mumbai, had 8,200 hours of flying experience. He was single and lived with his 90-year-old father. “Only a few days ago, he told his father that he would be quitting his job to look after him full time,” Shiv Sena lawmaker Dilip Lande told The Times of India.

The Indian Express reported that Sabharwal was just months from retirement. He also has an elder sister in Delhi. His family has deep ties to aviation — his father retired from the DGCA, and two nephews are also pilots.

"Whenever he flew out, Sumeet would ask us to keep an eye on his father. He [Sabharwal’s father] is devastated," a neighbour told Hindustan Times.

First Officer Clive Kundar, originally from Mangaluru, Karnataka, trained at Paris Air Inc. in Florida and had logged 1,100 flying hours. His mother, a former Air India flight attendant, and his father were in Sydney visiting their daughter at the time of the crash.