An Air India Express plane with 190 on board from Dubai overshot Karipur’s table top runway and dropped about 35 feet into a gorge on Friday evening. Officials said 20 people, including the pilot Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and the co-pilot have died in the accident and over 140 more are injured, some of them seriously, APA reports citing Hindustantimes.
Images from Karipur airport, also known as Kozhikode international airport, showed the aircraft split into two pieces.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said it was raining heavily when pilots of the Boeing 737 plane from Dubai tried to land. According to reports, the plane continued to run at a high speed and skidded off the runway when the pilots tried to stop it.
The regulator said after landing at Runway 10, the plane continued running till the end of the runway and fell into the valley and broke into two portions.
***21:45
An Air India Express flight with 191 passengers on board travelling from Dubai has skidded off the runway during landing at the Calicut Airport in Kerala, India, APA reports citing Hindustantimes.
"Air India Express flight IX 1344 operated by B737 aircraft from Dubai to Calicut overshot the runway at Kozhikode at 1941 hrs tonight. No fire reported at the time of landing. There are 174 passengers, 10 Infants , 2 Pilots and 5 cabin Crew on board the aircraft. As per the initial reports rescue operations are ongoing and passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care", Air India said in a statement.
The police said that some 14 people died and 15 were critically injured as a result of the crash landing.
Images of the incident, posted on social media, show the plane broken into two with debris scattered over the runway.
***19:29
An Air India Express flight with 191 passengers on board en route from Dubai skidded off the runway while landing at Kerala’s Kozhikode on Friday evening, APA reports citing Hindustantimes.
There have been two casualties so far but 40 passengers are believed to be injured, according to preliminary reports.
The Air India Express flight was about to land when the accident happened. After overshooting the runway, the aircraft broke into several pieces. The incident took place amid very heavy rainfall in the area around 7:40 pm. There were 191 passengers including crew members on board the flight.
The Kozhikkode airport is a tabletop airport like the one in Mangaluru.
Rescue operations are underway. More details are awaited.
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