Many dead in Indian plane crash

22/05/2010| IslamWeb

At least 158 people are feared dead after an Air India Express passenger jet crashed while landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore on a flight from Dubai.

Mangalore is a coastal city, around 320km west of Bangalore, the main city of Karnataka state.

Air India said eight people had been rescued from the Boeing 737-800, which was carrying 166 people, including six crew members, when it crashed on Saturday.

"As far as the information available with us is concerned, eight persons were rescued and shifted to local hospitals in Mangalore for their treatment," Anup Shrivasta, Air India personnel director, announced in Mumbai.

"Air India is right now busy in confirming the casualties."

R Ramesh, Mangalore's deputy police commissioner, said the jet crashed at around 6:30am (0100 GMT) after overshooting the runway.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, although Ramesh said the airport had been hit by heavy rains which hampered rescue efforts.

Air India Express is a budget airline run by Air India, a state-run carrier.

Television footage suggested the airliner had partially broken up, with smoke emanating from the fuselage, as rescue workers tried to douse the fire with foam.

Raging flames

TV images showed what appeared to be a forested area around the crash site.

Flames were seen blazing from the wreckage as rescue workers fought to bring the fire under control.

One television channel showed a fireman carrying in his arms what seemed to be the body of a child.

Rohit Katiyar, a senior airport security official, said: "The plane apparently overshot the runway and crashed. We have news that the plane caught fire after crashing."

Praful Patel, the Indian civil aviation minister, was expected to fly to the site from New Delhi later on Saturday.

The Mangalore tragedy is the first major air crash in India in nearly a decade.

Sixty-one people were killed when a Boeing 737 aircraft belonging to the domestic airline, Alliance Air, crashed into a residential area near the airport in the eastern Indian city of Patna in July 2000.

PHOTO CAPTION

In this frame grab made off TV9 video, firefighters try to douse flames on an Air India plane that crashed in Mangalore, in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, Saturday, May 22, 2010.

Al-Jazeera