158 Killed as AI Plane Crashes at Mangalore Airport
As many as 158 passengers were killed when an Air India Express flight from Dubai crashed and caught fire after overshooting the brand new runway while landing at the Mangalore airport, with only eight people on board surviving, said media reports.
“As far as the information available with us is concerned, eight persons were rescued and shifted to local hospitals in Mangalore for their treatment,” Air India personnel director Anup Shrivastava was quoted as saying while talking to reporters in Mumbai.
An Air India spokesman said that one of the eight survivors died on the way to hospital, reports said.
An official said that the state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800, which was inducted on January 15, 2008 and piloted by Serbian expatriate Capt Zlatko Glusica, had 160 passengers and a six-member crew on board, including four infants, said reports.
An official said that Glusica, 55, had 10,000 hours of flying experience, reports said.
The crash occurred in the morning at 6.30 am and the fire has been doused from the accident site, said reports.
Police said that 65 charred bodies have been recovered and a majority of the victims of this India’s worst ever air mishap are Keralites, reports said.
Srivastava said that Air India is right now busy in confirming the casualties and Magalore airport has been closed for further operations, said reports.
Karnataka Home Minister VS Acharya said that the condition of some of the injured was critical, reports said.
According to aviation officials, the aircraft overshot the runway, hit a fence and went beyond the boundary wall of the airport and fell into a cliff, said reports.
Sadananda Gowda, who is the BJP MP from Mangalore, said that the accident happened after a wing of the aircraft hit a hillock when the pilot attempted to take off after the plane overshot the runway while landing, reports said.
Officials said that the weather was cloudy and there was slight drizzle when the aircraft was landing at the runway which was opened 10 days ago, said reports.
(Based on internet reports)
