Air India pilot’s desperate mayday call moments before deadly plane crash

The pilot of Air India’s doomed plane issued a desperate mayday call moments before it plummeted to the ground and exploded into fire, killing almost everyone on board.

The pilot of Air India’s doomed flight out of Ahmedabad issued a desperate mayday call moments before smashing into a doctors’ hostel, killing almost everyone on board.

Captain Sumeet Sabharwal warned the plane was “losing power” just 11 seconds after lift-off but could do nothing to avert the catastrophe.

All but one of the 242 people on board the Air India plane were killed — with one man miraculously walking away with apparently minor injuries — and others lost their lives as the Dreamliner jet crashed into the hostel.

The doomed plane’s experienced pilot, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal. Picture: Supplied

First Officer Clive Kunder was also killed in the crash. Picture: Supplied

The Air India flight moments before it went down. Picture: Supplied

Shortly after lift-off, the captain called out down his radio: “Mayday ... no thrust, losing power, unable to lift”.

Mr Sabharwal had years of experience and had racked up 8200 hours in the air.

The plane had just a few hundred feet of altitude when the power apparently cut out.

The two pilots wrestled for 17 seconds with the controls before the jet careened into the buildings below.

The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner lost contact just seconds after take-off, according to flight tracking website Flightradar.

The wreckage of the Air India plane after it crashed in a residential area near the airport in Ahmedabad, bound for London. Picture: Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)/AFP

The Air India check-in counters at Gatwick Airport South Terminal on June 12. Picture: Belinda Jiao/Getty Images

It has emerged the doomed jet had travelled in and out of Australia just last week.

Air India confirmed on Thursday evening that just one person survived out of the 242 people on board.

He is reported to be a 40-year-old British dad, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh.

The plane erupted into a fireball when it hit the ground, killing almost everyone on board and others on the ground. Picture: Supplied

The wreckage site in the city of Ahmedabad. Picture: Supplied

The plane was headed to London Gatwick with 232 passengers and 10 crew members when it crashed just seconds after take-off.

Along with dozens of Brits, 169 Indian nationals, a Canadian and seven Portuguese travellers were also on board.

The Brits onboard who died include a family-of-three, a mother of three with her grandson, a pair of sisters and a wellness business couple.

Names were emerging in a tragic drip-feed of information on Thursday evening. Among them were a British family from Gloucester: recruitment consultant Akeel Nanabawa, 36, his wife Hannaa, 30, and their four-year-old daughter Sara, were killed.

Raxa Modha (left) is believed to have died in the Air India tragedy. Picture: Supplied

Flight attendant Nganthoi Sharma Kongbrailatpam was identified in local media as being on board the ill-fated Air India Flight 171. Picture: Supplied

A Facebook post from the Gloucester Muslim Community said: “We are profoundly heartbroken by the devastating loss of life. During this moment of overwhelming sorrow, our hearts go out to all those left behind.”

Mum-of-three Raxa Modha, 55, of Wellingborough, Northants., and her two-year-old grandson, Rudra, also died on the flight.

Wellingborough mayor Raj Mishra said: “May their memories be a blessing, and may we come together to support one another in this time of grief.”

This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission

Originally published as Air India pilot’s desperate mayday call moments before deadly plane crash