Air India Express plane accident leaves scores dead

[razgriz19]

All 169 people on board an Air India Express plane are feared dead after the aircraft overshot a runway and crashed.

"There were 163 passengers and six crew members and we fear all of them have been killed," Rohit Katiyar, a senior airport security official, said on Saturday.

"The plane apparently overshot the runway and has crashed. We have news that the plane caught fire after crashing," he added.

The Press Trust of India news agency said the plane was on a flight from Dubai on Saturday morning and had been attempting to land at the Bajpe airport, in the city of Mangalore in Karnataka state.


Al Jazeera English - CENTRAL/S. ASIA - Plane crashes in India

 

[razgriz19]

RIP...

 

[fallstuff]

I just heard that on news. My sincere condolences.

 

[kamakazi attack]

I hate planes. RIP

 

[idune]

RIP

Any news about what airline?

 

[Kinetic]

Most unfortunate. RIP. Just watched on TV.

 

[xuxu1457]

Sad news，sad for that,I am sorry for that~~

 

[new wave]

Rip, sorry to hear about this news.

 

[mjnaushad]

Sad incident indeed.

RIP the dead...

 

[chinapakistan]

Sad news, RIP to the dead. Was there any chinese passenger in that plane?

 

[TOPGUN]

Sad news indeed GOD bless the dead ...

 

[new wave]

Plane crashes in India, 160 people feared dead - Forbes.com

By ASHOK SHARMA , 05.22.10, 12:58 AM EDT


NEW DELHI -- As many as 160 people were feared dead after an Air India plane arriving from Dubai crashed and burst into flames at dawn Saturday as it overshot a hilltop runway in southern India while trying to land in the rain.

Television images showed dense black smoke billowing from the Boeing ( BA - news - people ) 737-800 aircraft surrounded by flames just outside the Mangalore city airport in a hilly area with thick grass and trees.

BuzzFirefighters sprayed water on the plane as rescue workers struggled to find survivors. One firefighter ran up a hill with an injured child in his arms.

Air India official Jitender Bhargava the plane carried 160 passengers and six crew members. Officials in the state of Karnataka said only six or seven might have survived.

"This is a major calamity," Karnataka Home Minister V.S. Acharya told CNN-IBN TV.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed condolences for the crash and promised compensation for the families of the victims.

the plane tried to land about 6 a.m. Saturday, it overshot the runway and crashed, Bhargava told The Associated Press.

The crash could be the deadliest in India since the November 1996 midair collision between a Saudi airliner and a Kazakh cargo plane near New Delhi that killed 349 people.

Scores of villagers scrambled over the hilly terrain to reach the wreckage, and began aiding in the rescue operation.

Pre-monsoon rains over the past two days caused low visibility in the area, officials said.

The airport's location, on a plateau surrounded by hills, made it difficult for the firefighters to reach the scene Saturday, officials said. Aviation experts said Bajpe airport's "tabletop" runway, which ends in a valley, makes a bad crash inevitable if a plane overshoots it.

Mangalore airport is about 19 miles (30 kilometers) outside of Mangalore city.

 

[dingyibvs]

Condolences

 

[Emperor Palpatine]

6 people survived...they told they jumped of the plane o_o

 

[Marxist]

only few surviovrs,casualties most are from Malabar area of Kerala.