{"id":76076,"date":"2025-07-19T18:55:25","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:55:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/76076\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T18:55:25","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T18:55:25","slug":"air-india-pilots-medical-records-examined-after-mental-health-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/76076\/","title":{"rendered":"Air India pilot\u2019s medical records examined after mental health claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air India crash investigators are examining the medical records of the pilot whose plane crashed in Ahmedabad<\/a> amid claims that he suffered from depression and mental health problems.<\/p>\n

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was 56, was months from retirement but had been considering leaving the airline to look after his elderly father following the death of his mother in 2022, The Telegraph can reveal.<\/p>\n

The pilot, who had more than 15,000 flying hours to his name, last undertook a Class I medical exam on Sept 5 last year.<\/p>\n

His records have been handed to investigators, whose initial report said their focus was on the actions of the pilots<\/a> rather than a technical fault with the plane. The Airline Pilots\u2019 Association of India said it rejected the \u201ctone and direction\u201d of the inquiry.<\/p>\n

Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a leading aviation safety expert in India, told The Telegraph: \u201cI have heard from several Air India pilots who told me he had some depression and mental health issues. He had taken time off from flying in the last three to four years. He had taken medical leave for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Telegraph understands that Captain Sabharwal took bereavement leave following the death of his mother. However, Mr Ranganathan said: \u201cHe must have been medically cleared by the company [Air India] doctors. They must have given the clearance certificate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/p>\n

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, who was 56 had more than 15,000 flying hours to his name<\/p>\n

All but one of the 242 people on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner were killed when the aircraft plunged into a medical student hostel last month, less than a minute after take-off from Ahmedabad airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The preliminary report released by the Indian authorities early on Saturday indicated that switches controlling fuel flow to the jet\u2019s two engines were turned off, leading to a catastrophic loss of thrust at take-off.<\/p>\n

According to the report, one of the pilots is heard in the recovered cockpit voice recording asking the other why he cut off the fuel supply<\/a>. The other pilot responds that he did not. It is not known who said what.<\/p>\n

While the initial report did not draw any conclusion, it has drawn attention to the actions of Captain Sabharwal, the plane\u2019s captain, and Clive Kundar, the First Officer.<\/p>\n

As per cockpit procedures, the pilot flying and in control of the take-off was First Officer Kundar, who would have had both hands on the control column during take-off.<\/p>\n

Captain Sabharwal, the pilot monitoring, would have had his hands free, leaving him in a position to cut off the fuel supply, Mr Ranganathan claimed.<\/p>\n

He joined Air India in 1994, building a record of more than 8,000 flying hours on this type of aircraft. After his mother\u2019s death, he moved from Delhi to Mumbai to care for his father, even considering leaving the airline altogether to devote himself fully to his family.<\/p>\n

Neighbours in Powai, Mumbai, remembered him as a quiet man who was often seen escorting his father on evening walks. \u201cHe was a doting son who never missed a chance to take his father down for fresh air,\u201d said one.<\/p>\n

Neil Pais, a former colleague, said the pilot was a \u201cthorough gentleman\u201d, telling The Telegraph: \u201cHe was actually considering early retirement in the next couple of years. His father is very old, 90, and he was going to look after him full time. That was the plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all human beings. Yes, there have been crew who\u2019ve displayed tendencies towards mental health issues, and they\u2019ve been grounded straight away. It\u2019s not allowed to go unchecked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOften it\u2019s more about life outside the job, which of course plays a part in how you perform. But if there\u2019s a concern, it\u2019s taken up by operations, by the right departments. They don\u2019t let anyone fly if there\u2019s any doubt.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Mourners<\/p>\n

Mourners gather at a memorial banner to Captain Sumeet Sabharwal in Mumbai last month – Divyakant Solanki\/EPA-EFE\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Savitri Budhania, an elderly neighbour of Captain Sabharwal in Mumbai, said: \u201cI told him, \u2018Your father is too old to be alone.\u2019 And he replied, \u2018Just one or two more flights\u2026 then I\u2019m going to just be with Papa.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWho could have known that would be the last time? Whenever he wasn\u2019t flying, he would walk hand in hand with his father in the evenings. They smiled at everyone, just gentle, quiet people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Air India declined to comment, but an official working with the Tata Group, the airline\u2019s parent company, told The Telegraph that Captain Sabharwal had not taken recent medical leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe did take bereavement leave in 2022 following his mother\u2019s death, and his medical records were submitted as part of the investigation, and the preliminary report did not find anything noteworthy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both pilots had passed the Class I medical exam, which evaluates a pilot\u2019s psycho-physical capacity, within the last two years.<\/p>\n

\"Clive<\/p>\n

Clive Kundar, the First Officer, had logged 1,100 flying hours early in his career<\/p>\n

First Officer Kunder, 28, came from a family steeped in aviation. His mother was a flight crew member, and he began his professional career<\/a> with an aircraft maintenance course at Mumbai\u2019s Bombay Flying Club before moving into the cockpit.<\/p>\n

Raised in Air India\u2019s colony at Kalina before the family moved to Borivali, he had logged 1,100 flying hours early in his career.<\/p>\n

Relatives and friends of the victims called the report\u2019s findings<\/a> a \u201cslap in the face\u201d and questioned how \u201csomething so trivial as a simple switch being deactivated\u201d had caused such a catastrophe.<\/p>\n

The Indian Commercial Pilots\u2019 Association said the crew of flight 171 had acted in line with their training and responsibilities under challenging conditions. It strongly rejected insinuations of malpractice, saying it was deeply disturbed by the speculation.<\/p>\n

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Air India crash investigators are examining the medical records of the pilot whose plane crashed in Ahmedabad amid…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":76077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[52778,5883,52780,52782,210,17288,52777,517,52783,52784,52781,52779,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-76076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-ahmedabad-airport","9":"tag-air-india","10":"tag-bereavement-leave","11":"tag-clive-kundar","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-medical-exam","14":"tag-medical-records","15":"tag-mental-health","16":"tag-mental-health-issues","17":"tag-ranganathan","18":"tag-sabharwal","19":"tag-the-telegraph","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-unitedstates","22":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114881425090195088","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}