‘Hero' India Air pilot ‘saved dozens of lives' with last gasp decision moments before doomed jet's horror crash
THE India Air pilot was hailed a hero yesterday by locals when he diverted the doomed jet at the last second to avoid their apartment block.
All 18 families in the three-storey building under the flight path are convinced they owe their lives to
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India Air pilot Captain Sumeet Sabharwal was hailed a hero
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The burnt out building at the site of the crash
Credit: Dan Charity
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Captain Sabharwal diverted the doomed jet at the last second to avoid an apartment block
Credit: Dan Charity
But with feet to spare, he managed to divert the plane carrying 242 passengers and crew towards a patch of grassland.
The locals raced from their homes in Ahmedabad when a fireball from 90 tons of aviation fuel ignited as the plane slammed into the ground next to a medical college.
The plane obliterated the top two floors of a disused four-storey military building.
And the fire tore through the college's hostel, killing dozens of students and staff who were having lunch in the canteen.
Read More on World News
All but one of the
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
Most read in The Sun
Mum Geeta Patni, 48, who is 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.
What caused the Air India plane disaster? Six main theories emerge – from mystery over landing gear to 40C weather
'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 indentified so far.
British and American experts have joined India's National Disaster Response Force to scour the area.
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Clive Kunder was the co-pilot on the doomed flight
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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,
Her uncle Joseph Patelia said: 'Before take-off, she called her father to say she'd boarded safely and would call once she landed in London. That call never came.
'She vanished, leaving us in shock, in tears, unable to believe what we're hearing.'
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