The Air India Express aircraft split into two after the mishap at Kozhikode airport on Friday.
Kerala Air India Express plane crash Live news updates: Preliminary probe into the Air India Express plane crash in Kozhikode, which claimed 18 lives and left at least a hundred injured, indicate poor weather conditions and a possible late touchdown as possible factors that led to the mishap. Early inputs from the airport and air traffic control officials indicate the aircraft touched down way beyond where it should have on the runway.
The death toll is now up to 18, including four children. Twenty-two others, who were on the flight that had 190 people on board, are serious. All the 18 dead have been identified, with nine of them belonging to Kozhikode alone, Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan said. Twenty-three people have been discharged after medical assistance.
Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja has asked all those engaged in rescue operations to go into self-quarantine and get themselves tested. Both the state and Centre have announced Rs 10 lakh each to the families of the deceased. Pinarayi said the state would bear the cost of treatment of the injured.
HELPLINE NUMBERS: 0495-2376901 (Helpline number for relatives of passengers); 0483-2719493 (Control room number at Kozhikode airport); 0097165970303 (Control room number at Sharjah airport in UAE); 009710565463903 (Control room number at Dubai airport); 009710543090572 (Control room number at Dubai airport)
Whether a longer runway at Kozhikode could have averted Friday’s crash may only be known once the investigation is over but the demand to extend it has been a pressing — and a long-standing one. In the accident, in which 18 people were killed and around 100 injured, the Air India Express plane overshot the tabletop runway and fell 35 feet down a slope, the impact breaking it in two. Way back in 2017, the Airports Authority of India, which manages the airport, had firmed up plans to extend Kozhikode’s 2750-m runway by 800 m and was awaiting allocation of land by the Kerala government. However, sources said, land was not acquired by the state citing high costs and local resistance. Tabletop runways are a challenge, especially during rain, when aircraft may need longer distances to slow down because of speed, reduced friction, payload and the risk of a skid.
Before leaving Dubai Friday noon, M Sharafudheen had ensured that his home in Kozhikode was stocked with provisions for a month — groceries in the cupboard, fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator. He had also got his aged parents moved to his elder brother’s home that morning. The salesman was coming to Pilassery village, with his wife Amina Sherin and their two-year-old daughter Fathima Iza, after a year. And he wanted to make sure that everything was in place for the 28 days of home quarantine. Finally, before the flight took off, Sharafudheen posted a photograph on Facebook of the family inside the aircraft wearing face shields. Hours later, the 35-year-old became one of the 18 who were killed after the Air India Express aircraft crashlanded at Kozhikode airport. On Saturday, Sharafudheen’s body was in the morgue of the district’s medical college. Fathima was in the ICU, a few hundred metres away. And Amina was fighting for life after undergoing an emergency surgery at a private hospital. Click here to read more.
Speaking to news agency ANI, DGCA Director General Anil Kumar said international aviation bodies are open to join the probe into the plane mishap. "The black box of the flight has been brought to Delhi and kept at the DGCA lab for examination. Since it is an international airport, international aviation bodies are welcome to aid us in the investigation," he said. He added, "Soon, we will have all the transcripts from the recovered black boxes. We are also going to talk to Boeing to examine the aircraft’s original equipment and check for defects. Only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe can we tell what exactly happened."
Global reinsurers will have to shell out over 90 per cent of the insured value of the Air India Express plane that was destroyed in the accident at the Kozhikode airport, with the public sector Indian insurance consortium led by New India Assurance — which reinsured the risk abroad — not getting affected much.
Air India, which has 170 aircraft, has taken an insurance policy that includes aircraft or hull and liability for third party and passengers. Air India Express’s aircraft is reinsured for around Rs 375 crore and Air India will recover this amount from reinsurers as the plane has been totally damaged.
All issues such as excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation and cracks that were red-flagged by aviation regulator DGCA in the past were "addressed and rectified" by the Kozhikode airport operator, said Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Saturday.
The minister's statement came after various news reports stated that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had issued a show cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found "various critical safety lapses" in different places, including the runway and the apron.
"It is indeed a fact that several issues were routinely red-flagged by DGCA, and were addressed by the (Kozhikode) airport operator. These pertain to excessive rubber deposits, water stagnation, cracks and other routine issues," Puri tweeted a day after the plane crash in Kozhikode that claimed at least 18 lives.
The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot of the Air India Express flight that crashed while attempting to land at the Karipur airport here, were handed over to their families on Saturday.
The relatives came with the AIE officials and the remains were taken to Ernakulam to be taken to their respective native places,Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan told PTI. "The bodies have been handed over to their families who came with AIE officials around 5 pm and as I understand they have moved to Cochin for onward journey to their respective destinations," Gopalakrishnan, who coordinated the rescue operations, said. (PTI)
Muhammed Riyas, 24, had taken the flight on Friday evening along with his brother after his parents fixed the marriage. His friends and local people at his native Mollur village are in a state of shock afer news emerged that Riyas, who was working with his brother Nizamuddin in Dubai, had died
in the accident. A villager said Riyas' family had fixed his engagement later this month after he completed the mandatory COVID-19 quarantine period.
"Unfortunately, we lost him in the tragedy.We are in a state of shock," one of his friends told reporters.(PTI)
Captain Deepak Vasanth Sathe was among the 18 people who died after an Air India Express flight from Dubai crashlanded at Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday. Sathe, 60, was a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF) and had served with its flight testing wing before taking to commercial flying.
He was an alumnus of the 58th course of the National Defence Academy (NDA) in Pune, and was awarded the ‘Sword of Honour’ at the Air Force Academy (AFA) in Dundigal. READ MORE
A day after the crash of an Air India Express plane, aviation safety expert Captain Ranganathan, who had earlier flagged concerns about Kozhikode airport runway, on Saturday said regulator DGCA should not allow landing of flights during monsoons on runway 10 at the aerodrome.
"Death due to an accident is something which happens when you don't know but when you knew the danger existed and you were warned about it and you took no action and an accident takes place, then it is definitely murder," Ranganathan told PTI. In 2011, he had warned that flights landing on runway 10 in tailwind conditions in rain at the Kozhikode airport endanger the lives of people onboard those flights.
On Saturday, he said the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) should enforce the correct runway code for Kozhikode airport.
Former Kerala bureaucrat E K Bharat Bhushan, who spearheaded and fast-tracked the completion of the Kozhikode airport back in 1988, and later in 2012, helming the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) threatened to shut down the flight operations at the same airport over safety concerns, told indianexpress.com that while multiple factors could have led to the mishap, this should be enough to convince people about the need to extend the runway here. Read the full interview here
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri inspected the crash site of the Air India Express flight at Karippur in Kozhikode. Puri also announced an interim relief of Rs 10 lakh for each of those who died in the crash and assured the kin of victims that steps would be taken to get them compensation in line with an international convention of International Civil Aviation Organisation. (Picture source: PTI)
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and state Health Minister KK Shailaja visited the plane crash site in Kozhikode. Earlier in the day, the Kerala government announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died in the tragedy. CM Vijayan also appreciated the instant response of the locals living in the vicinity of the airport and also the local authorities to the tragedy, which ensured minimum loss of lives in a disaster of such large magnitude.
Airports Authority of India (AAI) Chairman Arvind Singh on Saturday said "corrective action" will be taken after receiving the probe report on the Air India Express plane crash at Kozhikode airport. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is probing the accident at the Kozhikode airport that has left at least 18 people dead, including the two pilots of the plane. "This report will tell us about all the issues... we are awaiting the inquiry report and then we will take corrective action," Singh was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The black box of the ill-fated Air India Express plane that crashed at Karipur International Airport in Kozhikode has been recovered and will be taken to Delhi for further investigation by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said an official of aviation regulator DGCA on Saturday. The digital flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder jointly make up the "black box" in an aircraft. PTI
"Deeply disheartened" over the news of the flight crash at Kozhikode in Kerala, Tamil Nadu chief minister K Palaniswami today said in a statement: "I am deeply disheartened to hear the news of flight crash at Kozhikode. I pray to God to give enough strength to the families of victims and for the speedy recovery of the injured."
Speaking to reporters, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said: "There were 190 people on board the aircraft. Out of them, 18 lost their lives. Around 149 people were admitted to hospitals out of which 23 have been discharged. A few patients are in critical condition, three of them are on ventilators. We visited the site of crash and two black boxes have been recovered.The precise cause of the mishap will be determined when we analyse the data in those black boxes."
The Kerala government also announced a Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died in the crash on Friday. "The state government has decided to provide a compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the families of those who have lost their lives. The medical expenses of those under treatment will be taken over by the state government," CM Vijayan told reporters. "Out of the 14 adults, seven are male and others female. Currently, 149 people are in various hospitals of Malappuram and Kozhikode, out of which 23 are in critical condition. Earlier, 23 were discharged after being provided initial medical assistance," he added.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today praised the 'fast response' of the local people and officials in being the first to reach the aircraft crash site to rescue passengers, braving inclement weather and Covid-19 fears, "which made all the difference." "Yesterday, the fast response of local people and officials made all the difference. They braved bad weather and COVID fears to rescue their fellow beings. The long queues of people who wanted to donate blood was just one example," Vijayan was quoted as saying by PTI.
The broken Air India Express aircraft at Kozhikode airport on Saturday. (Express photo)
Pilot-in-command Deepak Sathe was an experienced Boeing 737-800 aircraft pilot, Air India Express said today. It added that the family members of the deceased were escorted to a Kozhikode hospital where his mortal remains were kept for post-mortem. The airline also said that the family of deceased co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar was also escorted from Delhi to Kozhikode.