As the news of the ill-fated Air India plane that crashed just moments after take-off continues to dominate the news space, pictures and names of the pilots and cabin crew as well as a family of five who also perished have now surfaced online.
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of experience, was today named as the pilot of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
First Officer Clive Kunder, from Mumbai, was co-piloting. He had logged 1,100 of flying hours and completed his training at the Florida-based Paris Air Flight School, according to local media.
Cabin crew members Nganthoi Sharma Kongbrailatpam and Lamnunthem Singson were also revealed to have been onboard.
Senior members Shradha Dhavan and Aparna Mahadik, along with Saineeta Chakravarti, Deepak Pathak, Maithili Patil, Irfan Shaikh, Roshni Songhare Rajendra, and Manisha Thapa were also named among the crew.
British father Vishwash Kumar Ramesh is thought to be the lone survivor of the plane disaster, which is believed to have claimed the lives of hundreds of people in India.
The 40-year-old spoke from the safety of a hospital bed after escaping from the fallen Flight 171 this morning.
The passenger, who was in seat 11A when the plane came down in a residential area, recalled: ‘Thirty seconds after take-off, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed. It all happened so quickly.’
‘When I got up, there were bodies all around me,’ he told local media. ‘I was scared. I stood up and ran.
‘There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.’
The plane had been carrying 242 passengers, including 53 Britons. Those on board also included 159 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese and a Canadian. Eleven of those on board were children, including two newborns.
In a similar news, five members of a family from Banswara in Rajasthan were among the victims of a catastrophic India plane crash that occurred in Ahmedabad on Thursday, moments after takeoff.
The deceased family from Banswara have been identified as Pratik Joshi, a software professional, his wife Komi Vyas, their twin sons Pradyut and Nakul, and their eldest daughter Miraya.
The family was reportedly traveling together when the ill-fated aircraft, operating as flight AI171, crashed into a medical college complex in Ahmedabad’s Meghaninagar area and erupted into flames.
This week was meant to be the start of a new chapter as he was finally bringing his wife and three children to join him abroad, to give them the life he had worked tirelessly to build for 9-years in the UK.
It was also gathered that his wife Dr Komi Vyas, had tendered her resignation just two days ago to start a fresh life with her family. Sadly, she perished with her family in the plane crash.
They also posed for a selfie and Sent it to relatives before the flight took off.
News of their death shocked Banswara, leaving friends, relatives, and former colleagues in disbelief.
“The whole town is in mourning,” News 18 quoted a close family friend as saying, describing them as a kind.
