THE Air India crash pilot was hailed a hero by locals yesterday after he diverted his doomed jet at the last second to avoid their apartment block.

All 18 families living in the three-story building directly below the flight path believe they owe their survival to Captain Sumeet Sabharwal. His Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which was on course towards them, encountered a loss of engine power shortly after taking off.

But with feet to spare, he managed to divert the plane carrying 242 passengers and crew towards a patch of grassland.

The residents hurried out of their Ahmedabad homes when a massive fireball erupted from 90 tons of aviation fuel, igniting after the aircraft plummeted next to a medical college.

The aircraft obliterated the top two floors of a disused four-storey military building.

But the fire tore through the college’s hostel, killing dozens of students and staff who were having lunch in the canteen.

All but one of the 242 people on the plane died.

Captain Sabharwal, 55, the son of an officer with India’s civil aviation authority, was an experienced aviator with 8,200 hours of flying time.

He was the main carer for his father, now in his 80s, who he called before take-off.

Colleagues paid tribute to Captain Sabharwal from Mumbai, saying: “He was a good, quiet person.”

Geeta Patni, 48, who was one of the closest residents to the crash site, told The Sun: “The building was shaking. We were so scared.

“There was chaos in the street and fire and smoke.

“Any closer and we would have died. The pilot saved us.

“We have always worried this might happen because the planes go over so low.”

Another resident, Jahanvi Rajput, 28, said: “Thanks to the pilot Captain Sabharwal, we survived. He’s a hero. It is because of him we are alive.

“The green space next to us was visible to him and that’s where he went.”

Mum-of-two Chancal Bai, 50, said: “If the plane had crashed into this residential area, there would have been hundreds more victims.”

All of the bodies from the site have been recovered with just 32 identified so far.

Most of the plane has now been removed and the engine will be analysed in America.

British and American experts have joined India’s National Disaster Response Force to scour the area.

Hundreds of desperate relatives have been gathering for news of loved ones at the local Civil Hospital.

The first funeral service for a British victim was held yesterday, for Elcina Alpesh Makwana, 42, of Hounslow, West London.

Her uncle, Joseph Patelia, mentioned: “She called her father before take-off to say she’d boarded safely and promised to call once she reached London. That call never came.”

“She vanished, leaving us in shock, in tears, unable to believe what we’re hearing.”