Just moments before the Air India flight 171 plunged into the residential quarters of a medical college in Meghaninagar killing 270 people (on board and on ground), senior pilot Captain Sumit Sabharwal sent a brief distress call to the Ahmedabad Air Traffic Control (ATC) at 1.39 pm. The message, lasting only five seconds, captures the terror unfolding in the cockpit. In the audio, the pilot can be heard saying: “MAYDAY… MAYDAY… MAYDAY… NO POWER… NO THRUST… GOING DOWN…” Mayday is an internationally recognised distress call used in radio communication.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Saturday detailed how the incident took place on Thursday afternoon. In a press conference, Samir Kumar Sinha, the aviation ministry secretary, on Saturday said the authorities were notified of the crash around 2 pm, which is about 20 minutes after the plane crashed.
“We received information the plane from Ahmedabad to Gatwick, London had crashed. We immediately got detailed information about this through Ahmedabad ATC. There were a total of 242 people on board, consisting of 230 passengers, 10 crew, and two pilots,” Sinha said.
“The plane took off at 1.39 pm and, within a few seconds, after reaching a height of about 650 feet, it started sinking, ie, it started losing height. The pilot informed Ahmedabad ATC that it was a ‘mayday’, ie, a full emergency. When ATC responded to the pilot’s emergency mayday call, there was no response”, Sinha said
“After exactly a minute, the plane crashed in Medhaninagar, which is two kilometres from the airport. The Captain was Sumeet Sabharwal and the First Officer was Clive Sundar.”
Sinha said that initial investigations had shown the plane had reached a height of 650ft after takeoff, after which it began to rapidly descend and hit the ground in Meghani Nagar, 2 km from Ahmedabad airport.
Flight operations at Ahmedabad airport were suspended at 2:30 pm and partially resumed at 5 pm after all emergency protocols were completed, Sinha added.
Sinha further informed that the flight data recorder of the crashed aircraft was found. Only one passenger, an Indian-origin British national, survived the crash.