Ahmedabad plane crash: Air India pilot Sumeet Sabharwal and his co-pilot Clive Kundar.
Ahemdabad plane crash: Air India pilot Sumeet Sabharwal and co-pilot Clive Kundar issued a “mayday” call to Air Traffic Control (ATC) after the aircraft began an abrupt descent at a speed of -475 feet per minute shortly after reaching an altitude of 625 feet. However, all the calls made by ATC went unanswered.
In his message to ATC, Sabharwal, who had 8,200 hours of flying experience, said that the aeroplane had “no thrust” and that he was “unable to lift” it.
“Mayday… no thrust, losing power, unable to lift,” read Sabharwal’s last mayday message to ATC. A few seconds after this, the Air India plane crashed.
What is a Mayday call?
A Mayday call is the highest-level radio distress signal used in aviation and maritime communication to indicate a life-threatening emergency. It signals that immediate assistance is required.
The term “Mayday” comes from the French phrase m’aider, meaning “help me”. It was introduced in the early 1920s by Frederick Stanley Mockford, a radio officer at Croydon Airport in London, to ensure clear communication during emergencies. The word later became a standard part of international radio communication for pilots and mariners and was officially adopted in 1927, alongside the Morse code signal “SOS”.
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