An Air India flight with 190 passengers on board skidded off the runway and split into two while landing at Kerala’s Kozhikode airport in heavy rain on Friday evening.
18 dead after an Air India flight veered off the runway and broke apart while landing at Kozhikode on Friday. The incident took place around 7:45 pm while Dubai-Kozhikode flight with 190 passengers on board trying to land at Karipur airport. There are 174 passengers, 10 infants, 2 pilots, 4 cabin crew on board the aircraft.
The plane broke in two after it overshot the tabletop runway and plunged around 30 feet down. Fire brigade and rescue teams rushed the spot to help extract passengers from the debris. Many people sustained injuries during the accident and rushed to nearby hospitals as ambulances were seen rushing the spot.
“Death toll in the Air India flight crash landing incident at Kozhikode rises to 18,” says Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The ambulances and fire tenders immediately rushed to the spot. The injured passengers were admitted to Kozhikode medical college.
The flight was operating under India’s Vande Bharat Mission and was returning from Dubai to Calicut (or Kozhikode). to help Indians, stranded due to Covid-19, return home.
The Union civil aviation ministry and the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will hold an urgent meeting with Air India officials over the incident on Saturday at Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union minister Amit Shah, civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri, among many other leaders and politicians expressed grief over the accident. United Nations’ specialised aviation agency, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), also regretted the accident.