Was Captain Sabharwal a villain or a victim?
On June 12, a catastrophic event shook the nation when Air India Flight 171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, crashed moments after takeoff from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport in Ahmedabad. The tragedy claimed the lives of 241 of the 242 passengers aboard and 19 individuals on the ground at a medical college hospital where the aircraft plummeted.
From the outset, suspicion has swirled around the pilots as the cause of the disaster. Initial reports suggested that co-pilot Clive Kunther was responsible for the crash. However, in recent days, media narratives have shifted, pinning the blame on Captain Sumit Sabharwal. Speculation, fueled by sensationalized reporting, claims that Captain Sabharwal, grieving the recent death of his mother, deliberately caused the crash as an act of suicide. These allegations, purportedly based on leaks from agencies such as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which are assisting India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), were first propagated by The Wall Street Journal. The story, embellished with dramatic flourishes, was picked up by The Daily Telegraph and subsequently amplified by Indian media outlets.
Fortunately, under the Modi administration, efforts to transfer the aircraft’s black box to the United States for analysis have been resisted. The Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation has also categorically dismissed these media claims, emphasizing that the investigation remains ongoing. This stance aligns with the concerns of both Boeing and, to some extent, Air India.
Who, then, is Captain Sumit Sabharwal? At 54, this unmarried pilot resided with his elderly parents in Powai, Mumbai. His mother passed away recently, leaving behind his 97-year-old father, a former official with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Captain Sabharwal, whose elder sister resides in Delhi with her two children—both pilots—was reportedly preparing to retire to care for his ailing father full-time.
Colleagues and friends describe him as a calm, respected individual who, even amidst personal grief, maintained a routine of taking walks with his elderly father. With extensive experience piloting aircraft such as the Airbus A310, Boeing 777, and the 787 Dreamliner—logging between 8,200 and 15,638 hours on the latter—Captain Sabharwal was a seasoned aviator. Yet, media narratives allege that this composed and dedicated professional resorted to suicide, driven by grief over his mother’s death and the burden of caring for his aging father. How implausible does this story seem? The rush to judgment began with The Wall Street Journal and The Daily Telegraph, whose reports were uncritically echoed by Indian media over the past two days. Adding fuel to the fire, some Indian-origin individuals in the US, including a pilot named Mohan Ranganathan, have claimed knowledge of alleged mental health issues plaguing Captain Sabharwal.
Strikingly, no one has questioned why such concerns were never reported. Instead, these claims have been leveraged to absolve Boeing—a corporate giant with a market value in the billions—while scapegoating a pilot who can no longer defend himself. It is worth noting that since 2019, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has faced documented technical and software issues.
To attribute the crash of an aircraft, potentially neglected in maintenance, to a pilot’s personal tragedy is not only convenient but also grossly unjust. The ease with which Indian media have fallen into the trap of protecting a foreign industrial titan like Boeing is alarming. According to official reports, Air India Flight 171 crashed on June 12 at 1:39 PM Indian Standard Time, or 8:09 UTC, a mere 30 seconds after takeoff. At the moment of impact, the aircraft’s maximum speed was recorded at 180 knots. Reports further indicate that the engine start switches were reactivated at 8:08:42 UTC, suggesting that within the brief 30-second window post-takeoff, the aircraft’s engines were turned off and then restarted.
The apparent cause? The fuel tank switches were found in the “off” position. The flight’s voice recorder captured a critical exchange: one pilot, upon discovering the issue, asked, “Who turned this off?” to which the other responded, “Not me.” This conversation, preserved in the retrieved black box, has fueled a narrative—first propagated by The Wall Street Journal and echoed by The Daily Telegraph and Indian media—that Captain Sumit Sabharwal deliberately switched off the fuel supply, causing the crash. The question remains: whom does this narrative serve? Let us now examine the flaws in this theory. Imagine driving a car at 80 kilometers per hour and suddenly shifting it into neutral without braking. The car would continue moving forward for some distance due to inertia, the natural tendency of an object in motion to remain in motion. The same principle applies to an aircraft.
In the case of Air India Flight 171, the crash occurred at 1:39 PM IST, moments after the pilots’ recorded exchange about the fuel switches. The switches were found off and promptly turned back on, indicating that the pilots noticed the issue when the engines lost the thrust needed to climb. Following standard procedure, they attempted to reboot the fuel switches at 8:08:42 UTC to restart the engines. Tragically, within the next 18 seconds, the aircraft plummeted to the ground. If the engines were restarted at 8:08:42 UTC, they must have been turned off—or become inoperative—prior to that moment. For an aircraft traveling at 180 knots, an immediate crash upon engine cutoff is implausible. Inertia should have allowed it to glide further before descending. The absence of such a glide suggests the fuel switches were turned off while the aircraft was still on the runway, causing the engines to fail shortly after takeoff. Like a kite with a snapped string, the plane briefly soared before crashing and bursting into flames. The pilots’ exchange likely occurred during this chaotic sequence.
Would a pilot intent on suicide attempt to restart the engines to save the aircraft? The notion seems absurd. Another critical point: the fuel switch in a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner (registration VT-ANB), powered by two General Electric GEnx-1B engines, is not a simple electrical toggle like a light bulb. It is controlled by a sophisticated software system known as the Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC). When a pilot flips the fuel switch, it sends a request—not a direct command—to the software, which evaluates the request based on operational conditions. In some cases, the system may even prompt the pilot for confirmation before cutting the fuel supply to the engines. These processes unfold in milliseconds.
In essence, even if Captain Sabharwal had intended to sabotage the flight, he could not have bypassed the FADEC system to cut the fuel supply and bring down the aircraft. Moreover, the timeline of events suggests there was simply no time for such an act. Since 2019, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner has been plagued by documented software glitches, with Boeing issuing periodic service patches to address them—patches that have often been criticized as inadequate.
Meanwhile, Air India faces allegations of negligence in maintaining this aircraft. Whether the reported technical issues, some of which Captain Sabharwal himself noted in the logbook, were addressed promptly, or whether the aircraft was overdue for servicing, remains under investigation. Yet, despite these unresolved questions, media outlets have been quick to vilify Captain Sabharwal, a pilot with an impeccable reputation, with reckless and unsubstantiated reports. The plea is simple from the general public and the large community of valiant pilots of the nation: until the official investigation report is released, the media must refrain from tarnishing the memory of a captain who lost his life in this tragedy. The allegations against Boeing and the persistent issues with the Dreamliner’s systems could easily warrant another major article. However, for now, the focus must remain on seeking the truth, not perpetuating convenient narratives.
(Author Renjith Gopalakrishnan is a Freelance Journalist and Management Consultant based in Bahrain)
Note:
1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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