Nearly a year ago, a London-bound Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner flight carrying the name ‘AI-171’ fell from the sky in Ahmedabad. The flight crashed just minutes after take-off on 12 June, 2025, killing 260 people, and leaving only one survivor.
As the painful anniversary nears, a chilling claim has emerged that suggests the flight’s pilot–Captain Sumeet Sabharwal–fought to save his passengers until the very last second.
To reach the truth of what happened inside that dreadful flight, Bhaskar English verified this claim by stepping into a life-sized cockpit with a professional pilot at Indus University near Ahmedabad.
Bhaskar steps inside the model cockpit to verify claims
A grim discovery in the mortuary Romin Vohra lost his brother, aunt, and three-year-old niece in the crash. A laboratory technician from Kheda district, Vohra used his medical background to enter the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital mortuary on 13 June to search for his family. Among the rooms filled with victims, he claims to have spotted the body of Captain Sabharwal on a separate table.
He added, “The captain’s back was burnt, but his front was identifiable.” Vohra believes this stance proves the crash was not intentional. “If someone wanted to die intentionally, he would not continue holding the steering,” Vohra asserted. He also signed police documents as a witness, proving he was present inside the mortuary.
Victim’s kin Romin Vohra talks to media
Recreating the final moments To verify this claim, Bhaskar English visited Indus University. Inside their life-sized aircraft cockpit, Captain Umang Jani, an experienced and DGCA-approved pilot, also a faculty at the varsity, explained what happens during a crisis.
Captain Jani explained that during take-off, a pilot keeps one hand on the throttle and the other on the control column. Once the plane lifts, both hands pull the column back. Captain Jani cites the training rules that explain why Captain Sabharwal was found this way.
If the pilot releases the control column, the plane will nose-dive instantly, making the crash far more violent.
This points towards the fact that by pulling back with all his strength, Captain Sabharwal was trying to keep the nose up to cushion the impact.
India’s aviation body, and several other international experts, continue to investigate the disaster. This depiction inside the cockpit of the ‘boxer stance’, however, shows a glimpse of what the pilot attempted in his final moments before all hell broke loose.
