New Delhi: At least 16 people were killed and 50 injured Friday as an Air India Express flight from Dubai skidded off the runway in Kozhikode, Kerala, amid heavy rains.
The plane had 191 people onboard, including 10 infants. The fatalities included the two pilots, and at least four people were still reported to be inside the plane, which broke into two on impact, at the time of going to press.
The flight — IX 1344 — that landed at the airport around 7.40 pm was part of the government’s Vande Bharat programme to bring back Indians stranded abroad on account of the Covid-19 crisis. Air India Express is Air India’s low-cost airline.
Rajeev Jain, the additional director general for media in the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation, said in an official statement that no fire was reported at the crash site. “As per the initial reports, rescue operations are on and Passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care” Jain said.
The crash Friday is the worst for Air India, the country’s flag carrier, since May 2010, when a flight from Dubai overshot the runway at the Mangaluru airport and burst into flames. The crash resulted in 158 deaths, including the flight’s two pilots and four crew members.
A look at Air India crashes over the past decades.
Also read: Mystery of 1966 Air India crash, that killed nuclear pioneer Bhabha, is unravelling bit by bit
Deadliest crash a terrorist attack
In July 2019, an Air India Express flight from Dammam, Saudi Arabia, had a tail strike while landing in Calicut. The aircraft had nearly 190 passengers on board but nobody was hurt.
In June 1985, a bomb exploded in a packed Air India flight from Toronto to Mumbai via London and New Delhi. The bomb had been placed in Air India Flight 182 by Khalistani terrorists. It went off while the flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, and killed all the 329 people onboard.
On New Year’s day in 1978, Air India Flight 855 crashed minutes after take-off from Mumbai’s Santacruz airport. The plane, headed for Dubai, crashed into the Arabian Sea. All the 213 passengers onboard died.
In January 1966, Air India flight 101 crashed into Switzerland’s Mont Blanc, a mountain, killing all 117 passengers and crew on-board. Renowned nuclear physicist Homi Jehangir Bhabha, the father of India’s nuclear programme, was one of the passengers.
In November 1950, Air India Flight 245 crashed in the same region. The crash killed all the 48 people on-board.
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