The pilot of the London-bound Air India jet that crashed Thursday put out an urgent call as the Boeing 787-8 quickly lost altitude on takeoff.
“Mayday … no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,” Sumeet Sabharwal told traffic control less than a minute into the flight, perreports.
The plane slammed into a medical building in Ahmedabad, killing all but one of its 242 passengers. At least 24 people died on the ground, according to Reuters.
Sabharwal, 60, was just a few months away from retirement, his neighbors told the Indian Express.
He had planned to take care of his 90-year-old father.
He had a sister in Delhi whose sons are also commercial pilots, according to the outlet.
The lone survivor aboard, 38-year-old Vishwashkumar Ramesh, who lives in Leicester, England, said he suffered “impact injuries” to his chest, eyes and feet.
“When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared. I stood up and ran,” he told Hindustan Times.
“There were pieces of the plane all around me. Someone grabbed hold of me and put me in an ambulance and brought me to the hospital.”
Dele Fashomi, seasoned journalist and communication teacher, is a holder of Master of Arts degree in Communication and Language Arts from the University of Ibadan in 1992/93.
Earlier, he had bagged a Bachelor degree from the same university in 1984, after which he proceeded to the Nigerian Institute of Journalism, Lagos, in 1990, for a postgraduate diploma in Journalism.
He had done many courses in communication, including the EU-BBC Editing Course in 2002.
Mr. Fashomi combines effectively the practice, research and teaching of communication. And to date, he has published two academic works in communication: Issues in Communication Technology and Policy (2010) and Economic and Social Issues in Advertising and PR (2013).
He had his first break in the Nigerian media in Concord Newspapers in 1990 and today, he has over two and half decades experience earned in several newspapers.
He has been part of many start-ups, such as The Republic (1987), The Comet (1999), The Anchor 2001 – 2002; Sun Newspapers (2003); Westerner newsmagazine (2005 – 2010) as Editor; National Life (2011) as Sunday Editor, and Newswatch Newspapers (2012- 2016) as Daily Editor.
Dele Fashomi is now the Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Newstide247.com newspaper online, which he started in July 2015. He is also into biography writing, with many books in his trail, some of which he wrote alone and one he co- authored with his mentor, Mr Dare Babarinsa, entitled: Olabiyi Durojaiye – DARE TO BE DiFFERENT. He also guided and collaborated with Pa Olatunji Odusanya in writing his autobiography – AGAINST ALL ODDS. There are many other books in the works under his pen.
