The plane, bound for Gatwick Airport in London, erupted into a fireball near Ahmedabad Airport in western India, killing everyone apart from one British man on board
The pilots of the Air India flight that crashed today, killing 241 people on board, have been pictured after details of their desperate mayday call emerged.
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad Airport, the aircraft departed at 1.39pm local time (9.09am BST) from runway 23. Shortly after take-off, the crew issued a “mayday” distress call, indicating an emergency situation. However, no further communication was received from the aircraft after the initial alert.
Flight tracking service Flightradar24 reported that it lost the signal from the aircraft just seconds after it became airborne. Before the aircraft went down and hit a residential property shortly after take-off, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, and his co-pilot Clive Kundar, with 1,100 hours of experience, raised the alarm.
The captain desperately said: “Mayday…no thrust, losing power, unable to lift.”
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