Milan, July 15 (LaPresse) – Investigators into the crash of the Air India flight that went down on June 11 shortly after takeoff from Ahmedabad are examining the medical records of the pilot, amid suspicions he may have been suffering from depression and mental health issues. According to The Telegraph, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, 56, was just months away from retirement but was considering leaving the airline early to care for his elderly father after his mother's death in 2022. Sabharwal, who had logged over 15,000 flight hours, passed his last Class I medical exam on September 5 last year.
The Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association has rejected the "tone and direction" of the investigation, which is focusing more on human error than on potential technical faults. Captain Mohan Ranganathan, a leading aviation safety expert in India, told The Telegraph: “Several Air India pilots told me he was suffering from depression and mental health issues. In the past three or four years, he had taken a break from flying and was on medical leave for that reason.” The newspaper also reported that Sabharwal had taken bereavement leave after his mother's death. However, Ranganathan noted: “He must have received medical clearance from the airline’s doctors to resume flying.”
Preliminary investigation findings indicate that the switches controlling the fuel supply to the plane’s two engines had been turned off. A voice in the cockpit recording is heard shouting: “Why did you shut down the engines?”
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