An Air India Express plane from Dubai, carrying 173 passengers overshot the runway and crashed into the forest, while landing at the Mangalore airport on Saturday morning. At least 5-6 people in critical condition have been rescued. Rescue operation was deeply affected by the thick smoke that engulfed the plane, airport authorities said.
The flight IX-892, operated by a Boeing 737-800, had 163 adult passengers, 4 infants and 6 crew members on board. Aviation sources said the aircraft overshot the runway, hit the fence and went ahead of the boundary wall of the airport. Contact with the aircraft as lost after 6.30 pm when the left wing of the plane caught fire. The incident happened near a valley 10 km from the airport, Karnataka home minister V S Acharya said.
“At least 160 passengers have died in the crash.” Acharyatold reporters. “At least five to six people have been taken to hospital, their condition is not known.” The reason of the crash is not known although Mangalore deputy police commissioner R. Ramesh said the airport had been lashed by heavy rains which had hampered rescue efforts.
Aviation sources termed it an ‘accident’ instead of ‘incident’, they said. In aviation parlance an accident denotes causalities. You can access the helpline centre at Delhi Airport and the two numbers are 011-2565-6196 and 011-2560-3101. Mangalore Helpline number is 0824-2220422.Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of those killed in Mangalore air crash and Rs 50,000 for the injured from the PM’s National Relief Fund.
India’s worst aviation accident happened in 1996 when two passenger planes crashed colliding with each other in mid-air near New Delhi with the loss of all 349 on board both flights.
