Morgue witness recalls harrowing details after Air India crash: 'Pilot clutched to controls'
PTC News Desk: A man who managed to enter the mortuary where victims of the Air India AI-171 crash were kept has described horrific scenes that he says will haunt him forever, including the sight of the aircraft captain’s body allegedly still holding the plane’s steering column.
The London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner crashed into the hostel building of BJ Medical College in Ahmedabad moments after takeoff. The tragedy claimed 260 lives, including 241 passengers and crew members on board and 19 people on the ground. Only one passenger survived the crash.
Among the victims were the aunt, brother and three-year-old niece of Romin Vohra. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Vohra said he was able to access the mortuary because he had earlier worked as a pathology lab assistant at Ahmedabad Civil Hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic and still knew staff members there. He had gone hoping to identify the remains of his family.
Instead, he encountered what he described as unimaginable devastation. Vohra said many bodies were laid side by side on the floor, including severed limbs and badly charred remains. He recalled seeing a mother’s burnt body with her child still in her arms and said he desperately tried to identify his niece from the remains he found.
One particular sight, however, left a deep impact on him. Vohra claimed he saw the body of Captain Sumeet Sabharwal placed separately in a corner of the mortuary.
“He was still in a sitting position,” Vohra told the newspaper. “His back was burnt, but the front of his body was absolutely perfect.”
According to him, the captain’s white uniform shirt with four gold shoulder stripes, along with his tie, trousers and shoes, appeared largely intact. What stunned him most, he said, was that the pilot was allegedly still gripping the aircraft’s double-handled yoke — the steering control column — which may have detached during the impact or rescue efforts.
The Daily Mail reported that a doctor said to have been present at the mortuary supported Vohra’s account. If true, aviation experts noted, it could indicate that Captain Sabharwal was attempting to control the aircraft until the final moments before the crash.
In its preliminary report released on July 12 last year, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau stated that fuel supply to both engines was cut off within a second of each other shortly after takeoff, causing confusion inside the cockpit.
- With inputs from agencies
