Gujarat plane crash: 9,300 hours of flying experience between captain manning flight & his co-pilot | India News

An hour before takeoff from Ahmedabad on Thursday, Captain Sumeet Sabharwal had called home and told his family he would ring again once he reached London. That was not to be. His last call was to air traffic control before AI171 crashed and burned. Sabharwal, a senior pilot, had 8,200 flying hours, aviation regulator DGCA said. A senior colleague, however, said his flying experience would be much more. “The regulator’s eGCA platform is fairly new and may not have his entire record,” the colleague said. “He was a very good, quiet person who flew the Airbus A310, Boeing 777 and B787. He kept his head down and was a diligent worker.” Co-pilot Clive Kunder had 1,100 hours flying experience. Commanding a commercial aircraft requires at least 1,500 hours; Kunder was first flying officer on the nearly 10 hour flight, assisting Sabharwal. Expressing grief over the tragedy, actor Vikrant Massey wrote on Instagram, “It pains even more to know that my uncle, Clifford Kunder, lost his son…” Several posts on social media mourned Kunder’s death and highlighted his roots in Mangaluru.