AIR India’s captain reportedly made a haunting plea as he left home on the day of the deadly crash.
Sumeet Sabharwal gave an eerie message to a security guard at his Mumbai apartment complex before heading to the cockpit of flight 171.
“Please, take care of papa. I will be back soon,” the 56-year-old pilot told guard Sunil Lokhande, according to The Telegraph.
It was the last thing he said at home before dying in the horror crash on June 12.
Lokhande, the security guard at Sabharwal’s residence in Jal Vayu Vihar, Mumbai, recalled what can now be understood as the pilot’s final goodbye.
He shared with The Telegraph: “I vividly remember that final moment when he ran his fingers through his hair, as he often did, and said, ‘How are you Mr. Lokhande. Please, look after papa, and I will return soon.’
“He smiled and went away. You’d never guess he carried any sadness inside.”
Currently, investigators suggest the pilot may have intentionally switched both guarded fuel levers to the “cut-off” position — a decision aviation experts assert could have only been intentional.
According to cockpit recordings, the co-pilot can be heard asking: “Why did you cut off?”
Sabharwal replied, apparently eerily calm: “I didn’t.”
However, according to US investigators analyzing the flight data, the switches were flipped one second apart — and were turned back on ten seconds later, which was too late to restart the engines.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner plunged into a hotel housing medical students just 30 seconds after takeoff.
A total of 241 passengers and crew plus 19 people on the ground were killed in the tragedy.
Only one person – Vishwash Ramesh – miraculously survived.
Three days before the crash, Sabharwal reportedly told his elderly dad, Pushkaraj, he was planning to resign from Air India and move home permanently to care for him.
His former colleague Neil Pais told The Telegraph: “He was actually considering early retirement in the next couple of years.
“His father is very old, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan.”
Sabharwal had reportedly struggled with grief after his mum’s death in 2022.
He had also separated from his wife and relocated from Dehli to Mumbai to be closer to his dad.
Veteran pilot under scrutiny
Captain Sabharwal had logged over 15,000 flying hours and was known as a calm, capable flyer.
He had never been involved in a major incident until Flight 171.
But his mental health is now under review.
Despite passing a Class I medical exam in September, The Telegraph reports that Indian investigators are probing claims he previously took leave for depression.
Friends and colleagues described him as humble, gentle and intensely private.
Some called him a “hero,” others “Sad Sack” — a nickname from his flying school days because of his melancholic eyes.
‘Human hand involved’
Aviation experts say the switches used to cut off fuel are physically guarded and require deliberate manual action to move.
There is no emergency scenario where both engines would be shut down after takeoff.
Captain Steve Scheibner said: “When you place both fuel cutoff switches to cut off, that will fuel-starve the engines and they’ll both flame out.
“There is no universe where there’s any procedure ever in the history of commercial flight where you place both fuel control switches to cut off, leave them there for 10 seconds, right after rotate.”
He added there was a “human hand” behind the tragedy of flight AI 171 – and insisted the aircraft itself was not to blame.
The seasoned pilot and respected aviation analyst, told Piers Morgan Uncensored: “My take on it is that the aeroplane was operating exactly the way it was designed, I don’t think there was anything wrong with this particular aircraft.
“Some things are plain and some things are clear, whether it was intentional, placing of the fuel control switches to cut off, or unintentional, that’s two different things.
“But I really firmly believe that there had to be a human hand on both of those for them to go to cut off.”
Investigation ongoing
India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has released a preliminary report, confirming the switches were flipped but stopping short of assigning blame.
US officials believe the evidence suggests deliberate human action.
Some sources claim a criminal probe may be warranted if the crash had occurred on American soil.
Air India says it is cooperating fully but declined to comment on the findings.
“We continue to mourn the loss,” a spokesperson said.
“Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment on specific details and refer all such enquiries to the AAIB.”
Key findings of Air India preliminary crash report
- Dual engine shutdown – fuel cutoff switches moved from ‘RUN’ to ‘CUTOFF’
- Confusion between pilots – cockpit audio confirms one pilot asked ‘why did you cut off’, the other replied ‘I didn’t’
- RAT deployed – as seen in CCTV footage before the crash, the ram air turbine (RAT) which acts as a backup power source in case of emergencies had deployed
- Engine relight attempted – fuel switches were found returned to ‘RUN’ at crash site
- 32 seconds – the time the aircraft was airborne before it crashed
- Thrust levers mismatch – Thrust levers found at idle but black box data shows takeoff thrust was still engaged
- Fuel test pass – fuel was clean without any contamination
- Normal take-off set-up – Flaps and landing gear correctly configured
- No bird activity – clear skies, good visibility, light winds
- Pilot credentials clear – both medically fit and rested
- No sabotage detected – although FAA alerted over a known fuel switch vulnerability not checked by Air India
- Aircraft loading – the flight was within weight and balance limits
