Air India Express crashes at Mangalore; 158 killed, 8 survive

158 persons were killed when a plane of Air India's low budget carrier from Dubai with 166 on board overshot the runway at the airport here, went down a ravine and burst into flames in the worst air disaster in the country in a decade.

Eight persons miraculously survived the crash after the two-and-a-half-year-old Boeing 737-800 with an experienced Serbian pilot in command missed the touchdown area at the 8,000-feet 'table top' runway (air strip on a hilly terrain) at Bajpe airport.

Civil Aviation minister Praful Patel, who flew to the crash site, told reporters here that of the 166 persons on board four persons escaped with minor injuries while three sustained major injuries. One person also escaped unhurt, he said.

Police said 146 charred bodies have been recovered nearly nine hours after the crash which occurred at 6.30am. A majority of the victims were Keralites.

The entire six-member crew including the two pilots perished in the accident that occurred at about 6.30 am. The passengers comprised 105 men, 32 women, 19 children and four infants.

An Airport Authority of India(AAI) official said there was no distress call from the pilots, who were very experienced and familiar with the hilly terrain, when they got clearance for landing the of Air India Express flight, about seven km away from touchdown.

The wind was calm, visibility at a comfortable six km and it was not raining at the time of the incident, the official said.

The Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), also known as the black box which could give vital clues to the cause of the crash, was yet to be recovered from the wreckage, Patel said.

He said the plane overshot the touchdown area of runway and went into a cliff because spillover area was short.

One of the wings of the aircraft hit the concrete localiser instrument, a navigation aid, and fell in that area itself.

The localiser is located at the end of the spillover area, which is about 90 metres, Patel said, adding the aircraft plunged into a ravine 200 to 300 metres down but did not immediately catch fire.

The plane broke into two and smoke billowed from the main fuselage. The plane was almost completely burnt with only its tail visible.

The commander Capt Zlatko Glusica(53) had 10,000 hours of flying experience and had made 16 previous landings at Bajpe airport while the co-pilot HS Ahluwalia with 3,650 flying hours had previously landed here 66 times.

The two pilots last flew into Mangalore on May 17, an official said. Two air hostesses were among the four-member cabin crew.

Patel said preliminary observation showed there was no problem with the four-year-old runway or the aircraft but the plane had overshot by about 2000 feet.

An inquiry  has been ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) into the crash and an Air India team will assist it in the probe.

The team headed by Executive Director (Operations) will establish the circumstances, collect data and assist the DGCA inquiry.

Mangalore airport, which is in a hilly area, was shut down immediately after the mishap but reopened after about eight hours.

One of the survivors Umar Farooq said the aircraft experienced turbulence. One eyewitness said a tyre of the ill-fated plane had burst on landing.

Charred bodies, strewn luggage and mangled remains of the aircraft bore a grim testimony to the tragedy.

"The plane shook with vibrations before it split into two. As soon as it hit the ground, I managed to get out and jump into a pit. There was smoke all over as the plane caught fire. After ten minutes, there was an explosion," said Pradeep, one of the seven survivors.

"I can't believe I survived the crash," he said reliving the moments minutes before the aircraft went up in flames.

About 150 CISF personnel, airport officials and fire service personnel along with civilians and local police were quickly pressed into service to pull out any survivors out of the burning plane.

Today's air mishap was the first major plane crash in the country in nearly a decade. 61 people were killed when a Boeing 737 aircraft of domestic airline Alliance Air, crashed into aresidential area near Patna airport in July 2000.

The country's worst aviation accident occured in 1996 when two passenger planes collided in mid-air near New Delhi with the loss of all 349 on board both flights.