aviation<\/a> safety expert in India and former Boeing pilot, told The i Paper that multiple pilots with Air India had been aware that Captain Sabharwal had been on leave with mental health struggles, despite having been found medically fit.<\/p>\n\u201cI have heard from more than two Air India pilots that Captain Sabharwal was struggling with mental health and had been on medical leave for some time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey [pilots] told me he was suffering from depression and other mental health issues. Air India management knows this. They have all the records about his medical leaves,\u201d Captain Ranganathan added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mental health of the pilot matters, because there\u2019s no technical explanation for why both fuel switches were turned off in sequence right at the point of take-off. That kind of action has to be deliberate.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"grabs](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SEI_255247491.jpg\")
Video showing Air India 171, a 787-8 Dreamliner, shortly before it crashed (Photo: X\/Twitter)<\/p>\n
As per cockpit procedures, the pilot flying (PF) Kunder would have had both hands on the control column during take-off while Sabharwal would have had free hands. \u201cThat point is crucial,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While the preliminary report from the AAIB confirms that both pilots were medically certified and had passed their annual checks, Captain Ranganathan urged investigators to look beyond routine clearances.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we need is a deeper psychological and behavioural review of the crew, not just in the days before the crash, but going back several months,\u201d he said. \u201cPassing a medical exam doesn\u2019t tell the full story of a pilot\u2019s mental state.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the crash, a significant number of Air India cabin crew have turned to the airline\u2019s peer support programme, which was introduced in its aftermath. According to sources within the company, the majority of those seeking psychological or emotional support have been from the cabin crew ranks.<\/p>\n
In the weeks following the incident, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of sick leave requests filed by both cabin crew and First Officers, reflecting the broader emotional toll the tragedy has had on frontline staff.<\/p>\n
Air India told The i Paper: \u201cAir India continues to fully co-operate with the AAIB and other authorities as their investigation progresses. Given the active nature of the investigation, we are unable to comment and refer all such enquiries to the AAIB.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Rafiq](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SEI_255364721_2fc1cb.jpg\")
Javed Ali Syed, from west London, along with his wife, Mariam, and children, Zayn Ali Syed with Amani Ali Syed, died in the plane crash (Photo: Amit Dave\/Reuters)<\/p>\n
India\u2019s Minister for Civil Aviation, Ram Mohan Naidu, has rejected news reports, blaming the captain for turning off the fuel switches before crash, as \u201cmedia narrative\u2026 promoting [their] own viewpoint\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe probe would look at facts and stand by the truth, which would only be known when the final report is out,\u201d Naidu said.<\/p>\n
But Captain Ranganathan said that delays in the full report\u2019s release would inevitably prompt speculation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe longer they [the AAIB] delay releasing the CVR [cockpit voice recorder] transcript, the more likely we are to see unofficial leaks. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if more details begin to surface within the next week.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, there\u2019s a wall of silence; no one is speaking. I\u2019ve been asked to stop commenting publicly. The atmosphere is tense, and it\u2019s clear there\u2019s a concerted effort to control the narrative.\u201d<\/p>\n
Captain was \u2018meticulous\u2019 and had \u2018highest standards\u2019<\/p>\n
Captain Sabharwal joined Air India in 1994 and had logged 15,638 hours of flying time, with 8,596 on the 787 aircraft. Friends and colleagues described him as a gentle soul, with \u201chighest standards of professionalism\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was extremely meticulous with his work in the cockpit. I mean, no shortcuts, everything was to the key, that sort of person,\u201d said Neil Pais, a former colleague who knew Captain Sabharwal for nearly a decade.<\/p>\n
Captain Sabharwal had been planning to quit Air India to look after his elderly father, Pushkaraj, following the death of his mother in 2022. Three days before his death, he shared his plan with his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was planning early retirement in the next couple of years,\u201d Mr Pais said. \u201cHis father is very old, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Why did Air India allow him in the cockpit?\u2019<\/p>\n
Imtiyaz Ali, 42, whose brother Javed Syed, 37, a British national, was killed in the crash along with his wife, Mariam, and their two children, Zayn, six, and Amani, four, said Air India should answer if the pilot was struggling with mental health issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the pilot was mentally unfit, then why was he flying at all? Why did Air India allow him in the cockpit?\u201d Mr Ali said. \u201cYou can\u2019t now turn around and call it suicide just to shift the blame. I want justice for closure, to heal our wounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Syed, a hotel manager from west London, had travelled to India with his family for a long-awaited Eid holiday to visit his ailing mother. His wife worked as a brand ambassador at Harrods.<\/p>\n
\u2018This could be a serious technical fault\u2019<\/p>\n
However, as uncertainty grows over what may or may not have happened in the cockpit of Air India Flight 171, there is disagreement among pilots and air safety experts over whether a pilot was responsible.<\/p>\n
Amit Singh, an aircraft safety expert and founder of Safety Matters Foundation, does not believe the crash was caused deliberately by the pilot, but could have been due to technical faults elsewhere on the plane.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom the evidence available so far, this doesn\u2019t look like pilot sabotage. It points to a serious technical fault. The aircraft was already reporting multiple electrical issues even before takeoff. That\u2019s not speculation, it\u2019s logged data,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Singh added: \u201cIf the pilot had deliberately turned off critical systems, why was he actively trying to keep the aircraft airborne? The fuel switches were turned on to revive the engine, that doesn\u2019t fit the narrative of a planned crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the aircraft was taxiing out, it had several electrical faults. We know both battery protection units, the BPCUs (Bus Power Control Unit), registered faults. These control the aircraft\u2019s battery health and charging systems. If both fail, the aircraft loses a critical safety net.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Singh continued: \u201cWhat really stands out is the rear black box. It was found melted, its casing deformed, but without any of the black soot you\u2019d expect from a fuel fire. That suggests extreme internal heat, possibly from a lithium-ion battery fire, not just a post-crash blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rear flight recorder is designed to withstand temperatures of 1,000\u00b0C for over an hour. For it to melt like that, the internal fire must have been far hotter, we\u2019re talking around 1,500\u00b0C, which only a thermal runaway from a lithium battery can generate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air India pilots were aware the captain of the doomed plane was suffering from depression and had been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4317],"tags":[13133,1306,103753,99356,105,730,218,2806,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-285418","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-air-travel","9":"tag-aviation","10":"tag-aviation-safety","11":"tag-boeing-787-dreamliner","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-india","14":"tag-mental-health","15":"tag-planes","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114903055517476030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/comp-1753262933.png\")
Captain Sumeet Sabharwal and First Officer Clive Kundar (Photo: Facebook)<\/p>\n