Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Plane skids off runway in India, 16 killed and dozens hurt

Published:Friday | August 7, 2020 | 1:01 PM
The Air India Express flight that skidded off a runway while landing at the airport in Kozhikode, Kerala state, India, Friday, August 7, 2020. (AP Photo)

NEW DELHI (AP) — A special evacuation flight bringing people home to India who had been trapped abroad because of the coronavirus skidded off a runway and split in two while landing Friday in heavy rain in the southern state of Kerala, killing at least 16 passengers and injuring 123 more, police said.

Abdul Karim, a senior Kerala state police officer, said the dead included one of the pilots of the two-year-old Boeing 737-800 flying for Air India Express airline.

He said at least 15 of the injured were in critical condition, and that rescue operations were over.

The NDTV news channel said the plane flew from Dubai to Kozhikode, also called Calicut, in Kerala, India’s southernmost state.

No fire was reported on the Boeing 737 aircraft after it landed and broke into two pieces, Rajiv Jain, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Ministry, said.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep S. Puri said in a statement that the flight “overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet (10.6 meters) into a slope before breaking up into two pieces.”

An inquiry will be conducted by the ministry’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, he said.

Dubai-based aviation consultant Mark Martin said that while it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, annual monsoon conditions appeared to be a factor.

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