Most mourned, publicized, sensationalized plane crash

By Alex P. Vidal

“Never have doubted it, even when the plane crash happened. I wasn’t mad at God. I just knew that there was a reason that I didn’t know about why it happened.” – Reba McEntire

WE have covered in the media several air mishaps involving commercial, private and military aircrafts in the past, but nothing can compare to the ill-fated Air India Flight 171 crash that killed 270 people when it comes to social and mainstream media extended coverage and impact to many people around the world.

As of this writing or several days after the shocking crash, photos and videos of passengers and flight crew, including that of the two pilots taken before, during, and after the horrific tragedy continued to flood in the social media and TV networks all over the world.

People around the world continued to mourn like members of family were among those killed. Airport departure stories, last photos and videos taken while saying goodbye to loved ones, premonitions by some passengers, excitement-turned-gruesome endings, anguish of family members, etcetera.

The massive and widespread mourning probably was heavily influenced by the victims’ voluminous photos and videos the netizens regularly see on the social media.

The impact of the tragedy couldn’t leave the memory easily after seeing the once vibrant and active lives, including entire families, suddenly gone in seconds or minutes after they were taken in the airport and inside the cabin before the crash.

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It’s impossible not to be affected and touched by the sorrows and heartaches felt by relatives shocked by the sudden turn of events.

According to Hari Kumar and Mujib Mashal of New York Times, Capt. Sumeet Sabharwal, 55, had been considering early retirement to care for his octogenarian father. His co-pilot for the day, Clive Kunder, 32, had just started to build momentum in his career.

Together, they brought nearly 10,000 hours of flight experience to the cockpit. But now it is the final moments of their last flight, the ill-fated Air India Flight 171, that investigators will be studying for months to come.

The flight, which took off on June 12 from Ahmedabad City bound for London, lasted less than a minute in the air before crashing into the campus of a nearby medical college, leaving at least 270 people dead.

The impact ignited a fireball so intense that the bodies of most of the victims are damaged beyond recognition, officials have said. By Sunday afternoon, three days after the crash, the remains of only 35 onboard the Boeing 787 had been identified through DNA tests and released to the families.

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Investigators have sealed the crash site and the hostels of the medical college that were hit. They have recovered the aircraft’s flight data recorder and continue searching for the cockpit voice recorder. They hope the conversation between Captain Sabharwal and First Officer Kunder, along with other information recorded in those devices, known as black boxes, can shed light on whether the plane crashed because of mechanical failure, human error or some other combination of factors.

Regardless of what went wrong, officials and experts agree on one point: The pilots had virtually no time to regain control of the plane as it began going down.

The aircraft carrying 242 people left the runway at 1:39 p.m. local time and had traveled just over a mile, passing the slums along the airport’s perimeter. It never climbed higher than 650 feet, said India’s civil aviation secretary, Samir Kumar Sinha. Within seconds of takeoff, the aircraft “started sinking,” he said.

Captain Sabharwal issued a “Mayday” call to the air traffic controller, declaring a full emergency, but the plane went down seconds later.

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“When the air traffic controller tried to contact the plane, there was no response,” Mr. Sinha said at a news conference. Only one person on the plane survived.

Both Captain Sabharwal and First Officer Kunder, who lived in Mumbai, had parents who had built their careers in the world of air travel. Captain Sabharwal’s father had worked as an officer in the civil aviation authority of India before retiring, while Mr. Kunder’s mother worked as a flight attendant, also for Air India.

Captain Sabharwal, who was unmarried, was the primary caregiver of his father, who is now in his late 80s. His mother died three years ago, and his sister lives in Delhi with her family. The captain’s neighbors and friends described him as a soft-spoken, reserved man, whom they often saw accompanying his father for walks in the garden of their housing complex whenever he was home.

“His father would be alone when he went flying,” said Sanjeev Pai, a retired wing commander who said he was a friend and neighbor of the captain.

Mr. Pai said Mr. Sabharwal has been grieving since learning of the crash.

“He doesn’t speak much,” Mr. Pai said in an interview. “We try to offer him tea, et cetera, but he won’t have anything out of sadness.”

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines. – Ed)