Pilot's Final Move Before Air India Crash May Have Saved Thousands

People are now pointing to the pilot of the doomed Air India flight as someone who may have carried out one last selfless act just before the crash.

The tragic event happened on Thursday (June 12), when an Air India flight took off from Ahmedabad but quickly ran into problems shortly after being airborne.

In less than a minute after takeoff, the aircraft—believed to be a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner—went down and collided with a medical college hostel building, causing widespread devastation.

So far, the disaster has claimed 270 lives, which includes people who were on board and others on the ground. Only one passenger who was on the flight survived to share their experience.

One of the individuals who lost their life in the heartbreaking crash was Arjun Patoliya, a father of two.

Arjun had been flying to India to honor his late wife Bharti’s final wish—she had wanted her ashes to be scattered in Gujarat. Bharti had passed away from cancer just two weeks earlier.

Now, their two young daughters—just four and eight years old—have been left without both of their parents, a loss that has deeply affected many.

As devastating as the death toll already is, many believe it could have been even worse if the pilot had not made the decision to crash the plane in a less populated location.

The flight was under the command of Officer Clive Kunder and Captain Sumeet Sabharwal. According to LBC, the two pilots together had clocked over 9,000 hours of flying experience.

Two young girls have been left without a mom and dad following Thursday's crash GoFundMe

Located a little over five kilometers from the Ahmedabad airport is Civil Hospital Ahmedabad, a major medical facility with more than 3,000 beds, based on reports.

Despite the situation, the pilot managed to steer the plane away from the hospital. Some people believe that this may have been a deliberate decision to avoid further loss of life in a more crowded area.

One Reddit user shared their perspective and wrote: "Air India AI-171 crashed just 1.7 km from the Ahmedabad airport. It crashed in a somewhat loosely populated area which has doctor's hostels and mess for medical students of BJMC and Civil Hospital Ahmedabad."

All but one Air India passenger on the plane died BASIT ZARGAR/Middle east images/AFP via Getty Images

"Just 400 metres north of the crash site is a civil hospital and south just adjacent to the airport wall is a high-density residential area," the user continued, according to the Daily Star.

Close by is also the neighborhood of Asarva, where about 5,100 people were living as of 2020. Had the crash happened there instead, the loss could have been much greater.

There are currently many questions and theories floating around about what exactly went wrong with the Air India flight. But the real cause won’t be clear until the plane’s black box is fully examined and analyzed.

The BBC has reported that the black box was recovered on Friday (June 13).

India’s Minister of Civil Aviation, Ram Mohan Naidu Kinjarapu, described the discovery as “an important step forward in the investigation” and said it would “significantly aid the inquiry”.