Pilot Sabharwal Fought to Save the Plane Until His Last Breath; Eyewitness Recounts Horrors of Ahmedabad Plane Crash

New Delhi: Nearly a year after the Ahmedabad plane crash, a deeply moving revelation has emerged regarding the aircraft’s pilot. An eyewitness who visited the morgue where the bodies of the crash victims were kept has recounted the harrowing scene he witnessed there. He revealed that the pilot’s body was still tightly clutching the aircraft’s steering column (yoke).

Speaking to the Daily Mail, eyewitness Romin Vohra explained that he was working as a pathology lab assistant at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. As he had acquaintances among the staff there, he managed to gain entry into the morgue to identify the bodies of his relatives. Among the deceased were Romin Vohra’s aunt, Yasmin; his brother, Parvez (who worked for Amazon in London); and his three-year-old niece. Romin recounted that, in his attempt to identify his niece’s body, he had to closely examine the skull of a young child.

A Heart-Wrenching Scene in the Morgue
Romin described the scene inside the morgue as nothing short of hellish. Numerous bodies lay lined up one after another on the floor. Severed heads and limbs were scattered across the room. There was the charred body of a mother who was still clutching her child tightly in her arms. Romin Vohra claimed that, in a corner of the morgue, the body of the aircraft’s Pilot-in-Command, Captain Sumit Sabharwal, had been placed separately. According to Romin, “He was still in a seated position. His back was scorched, but the front of his body remained completely intact.”

The Steering Wheel Still in the Captain’s Hands
He noted that the Captain’s attire—his white shirt adorned with four gold stripes, black tie, trousers, and shoes—remained exactly as they were. The most astonishing detail was that Captain Sabharwal was still clutching the aircraft’s dual-control yoke (steering wheel) in his hands, holding it in a firm grip. This steering mechanism likely snapped either during the impact or while rescue workers were extracting him from the cockpit. A doctor present at the morgue has also corroborated this claim made by Romin. Aviation experts state that if this proves to be true, it demonstrates that Captain Sabharwal was attempting to save the aircraft right up until the very last second.

Previous Report Regarding the Pilot
An preliminary report released on July 12 of last year by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau stated that, immediately after takeoff, the fuel supply to both engines was cut off—sequentially, with a gap of just one second between them. Following the release of this report, speculation arose that the accident may have been caused by pilot error. However, Captain Sabharwal’s family and various pilot associations have strongly objected to this preliminary report. The Captain’s father, Pushkaraj Sabharwal, along with the Federation of Indian Pilots, has approached the Supreme Court. They contend that this report serves to defame pilots who are no longer alive to defend themselves.