Air India plane crash: Sachin Tendulkar expresses condolence day after, netizens say ‘it was important for you to not…’

Legendary Sachin Tendulkar became the latest cricketer to express his condolence to the lives lost in the tragic Air India place crash that took place in Ahmedabad on Thursday. The Air India flight AI 171 bound for London's Gatwick crashed shortly after it took off from the Ahmedabad International Airport, killing 241 out of 242 people on board.

While the sports fraternity expressed grief on Thursday itself, Tendulkar's post on social media platform X came a day after on Friday. “Devastated and heartbroken by the flight crash in Ahmedabad. Such a tragic incident!" wrote Tendulkar.

"Prayers for the departed souls, and may God give strength and courage to their loved ones at this difficult time,” the post further added. However, the timing of Tendulkar's post didn't go well with his fans as they expected the former India cricketer to have spoken on Thursday.

In reply to Tendulkar's post, an user looked upset on the fact that the cricketing legend didn't tweeted his support on Thursday. “Everyone tweeted yesterday, everyone tweeted their support in this tragic incident, but your tweet was not visible that you were in the world yesterday....Everyone considers you the God of cricket Sachin Sir Ji, it was important for you to not sleep in such a time of grief,” the user said.

“Bro was asleep yesterday, anyway good to have you back god,” wrote another.

What happened with Air India flight AI 171?

The Air India flight, which crashed, carried 169 Indian nationals, 53 British nationals, seven Portuguese nationals, and one Canadian national. Miraculously, the only survivor of the deadly crash is a British national of Indian origin.

The aircraft was piloted by Captain Sumeet Sabharwal, a Line Training Captain with 8,200 hours of flying experience, assisted by First Officer Clive Kundar, who had logged 1,100 flying hours. According to Air Traffic Control (ATC), the aircraft departed from Ahmedabad at 1339 IST (0809 UTC) from runway 23.

It made a Mayday call to ATC, but thereafter, the aircraft did not respond to the calls made by ATC. Immediately after departing Runway 23, the aircraft crashed outside the airport perimeter. An official said heavy black smoke was coming from the accident site.