Air India flight crashes; at least 160 feared dead

Titlu: Air India flight crashes; at least 160 feared dead
Sursa: msnbc
Autor: ****
Data: 21 mai 2010

Citat :

NEW DELHI - An Air India plane with about 170 aboard overshot a runway while landing in southern India Saturday. Officials said 160 are confirmed dead, but a few on board survived.

The aircraft was landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, arriving from Dubai.

"There were 163 passengers and six crew members and we fear all of them have been killed," said Rohit Katiyar, a top airport security official. However, other officials reported that there were up to 163 passengers and nine crew members aboard. They also reported there were survivors but that they didn't know how many. At least 160 passengers have died in the crash," V.S. Acharya, Home Minister of the southern state of Karnataka, told reporters.

A second official also confirmed that 160 people had been killed.

Local reports said the airport was closed after the crash. The plane had developed a technical snag in the air, and of its two engines caught fire and the plane burnt in the air before crashing, they said.

Television images showed smoke rising from the aircraft as rescuers evacuated people from inside. Peter Abraham, director of the Mangalore airport, told reporters that the plane did not catch fire but there were fumes around it.

Footage from Suvarna News showed that most of the aircraft was destroyed in the crash. Fires were seen burning at the scene.

New Delhi TV reported the plane fell off the end of a cliff at the end of the landing strip.

Seemant Singh, a top police official at Mangalore airport, said that conditions at the airport were poor when the plane overshot the runway around 6:30 a.m. local time.

This is a breaking news story. Please check back for more details.

Titlu: Boeing 737-800 al Air India prabusit in Mangalore
Data: 22.05.2010
Sursa:airbuzz.ro
Autor: airbuzz.ro

Citat :

Un avion Boeing 737-800(VT-AXV) apartinand Air India care efectua cursa Dubai-Mangalore cu 173 de oameni la bord a depasit suprafata pistei la aterizare si s-a lovit de un zid, izbucnind in flacari. In momentul aterizarii vizibilitatea era redusa din cauza cetei dense.

asta e avionu
http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=6792107&nseq=0

poze de la accident aici
http://www.ndtv.com/news/photos/album-details.php?albumPage=4&id=7414&Album=PHOTO_GALLERY&AlbumTitle=First+Pics:+Mangalore+Air+Tragedy

http://www.daylife.com/search/photos/1/grid?q=mangalore

Captain- Zlatko Glusica (Serbian expat)
First officer - S.S. Ahluwalia


Airport Authorities of India issued a press release saying the plane crashed after overshoot the runway.
"The aircraft was following ILS Approach for landing on Runway 24 and the pilot reported to ATC that it is established on ILS approach at about 10 miles from touch down. Landing clearance was given at about four miles from touch down. Aircraft touched down the Runway 24 beyond the touch down zone, overshot the runway and went in the valley beyond the runway," the release said.

Titlu: Serbian pilot Zlatko Glusica's error blamed for India Mangalore crash, 158 perished
Data: 23.05.2010
Sursa:http://www.whatsonxiamen.com/news12327.html

Citat :

Pilot error was being blamed last night after a Boeing 737-800 overshot a hilltop runway in India, plunged over a cliff and exploded in flames, killing all but eight of the 166 people onboard.

Survivors said it had braked suddenly and veered out of control before the right wing struck an antenna, splitting the plane in two as it careered towards the cliff’s edge.

“I heard a sound and saw smoke quickly fill the plane,” said Umar Farooq, one of the passengers. “A crack appeared on the plane’s body where I was seated. I immediately jumped out. Two or three people seated behind me also jumped. As I fled from the aircraft, flames engulfed it.”

The Serbian pilot, Zlatko Glusica, who was said to have flying experience in Britain, was among the 158 dead. He issued no distress signal before landing the flight from Dubai to Mangalore in southwest India at 6.03am in good conditions.

Experts claimed that although he had landed at Mangalore on 19 previous occasions, he appeared to have touched down too far along the 8,000ft runway, missing the “landing threshold” and leaving too little time to stop. Pilot error was a “likely” cause of the disaster, said Kapil Kaul, chief executive of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a research group.

One of the most poignant sights was of a little girl, burnt but alive, being pulled from the wreckage and carried away in a fireman’s arms. It was reported last night that she had died later. A boy a few years older was said to have survived.

Many of the 160 passengers, all Indian, were returning home from jobs in the Gulf for the start of the summer holiday season. They included 23 children — four of them infants — and migrant workers who had not seen their families for up to two years.

Relatives packed Mangalore’s Bajpe airport as Glusica — described by Air India Express, his employer, as a seasoned pilot with more than 10,000 hours’ flying experience — brought the plane in to land.

The first sign of trouble was a bang that sounded like a small explosion. Passengers said it could have been a tyre bursting as the pilot braked sharply and lost control.

“It all happened in just a few seconds,” said Abdul Totuttur, a Dubai sports shop manager who was in window seat 19A.

“The right wing was on the ground, but the left wing of the plane was up in the air. Then I saw the plane break into two in the middle. I had very little time. But I jumped out, about 8ft. I had two other people [with me] who did the same.

“It was all black,” Totuttur went on. “I could hear people trapped inside screaming helplessly. I walked on fire for some time. I limped and fell and picked myself up again. When I turned back and looked, there was a loud explosion and smouldering fire.”

He climbed a hill and was given water by rescuers. His brother then drove him to hospital, where his wife and two-year-old daughter were waiting. “I have injuries on my face and my hand,” Totuttur said. “Allah has saved me.”

Of the eight survivors, four had only minor injuries and one was unscathed.

Putturismail Abdulla, who was returning home from his job in Dubai, said he thought the plane was coming to a halt when he heard a “big burst”.

“I saw the aircraft breaking into two near me. Out of sheer desperation I jumped out and ran to safety. Looking back I saw the aircraft breaking down into pieces and [it] caught fire,” he said.

The crash was India’s worst since 1996, when a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight collided midair with a Kazakh plane near Delhi, killing all 349 people on board.

It was also a severe blow to Air India, the national carrier, which lost £830m last year and has been embarrassed by recent reports of pilots and crew scuffling during a flight over Pakistan and rats climbing onboard a plane to Toronto.

As rescue workers pulled charred bodies from the seats where they remained strapped in at Mangalore, some aviation experts described its “table-top” runway as a disaster waiting to happen, with little room for manoeuvre in an emergency.

Others pointed out that there had been 32,000 safe landings since the runway opened in 2006. “Seeing that the aircraft overshot the runway, my guess is the pilot could have erred in his estimation or there could have been some problem with the brakes which resulted in the crash,” said Peter Abraham, the airport’s director.

Praful Patel, the civil aviation minister, said a 90-yard safety zone at the end of the runway would normally compensate for planes overshooting. “In this case it was apparently not able to stop ... obviously the aircraft was at a higher speed,” he said.

Families struggled to come to terms with their loss. Rohit Rao, 41, a former airport contractor, said he knew eight people onboard: “All of them have died. My brother’s friend was travelling with his wife and child. They are gone. My local banker, whom I know very well, his wife and child are gone. My school classmate’s husband and mother died. I am dreading bad news every time my phone rings.”

Si detalii despre echipaj:

http://www.airindiaexpress.in/FreeREZ/ADS_WEB/TA/images/ListOfCrew.htm

Titlu: Air India Crashed 737 Black Box Found
Sursa: http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1274793705.html
Autor: Reuters
Data: 25.05.2010

Citat :

Air India Crashed 737 Black Box Found

A black box recorder has been recovered from the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft that crashed in southern India last week, killing 158 people on board, an official said on Tuesday.

The cause of the worst air disaster in India in more than a decade was still unknown, said officials.

"Yes, the black box has been found," Peter Abraham, director at the Mangalore airport said.

The Air India Express aircraft, a budget carrier owned by state-run Air India and carrying 166 people and crew, crashed early on Saturday while landing at Mangalore city's "table-top" airport which overlooks a ravine.

Eight people survived, mostly by jumping out of the plane that broke into two after crashing.

While the cause of the crash has not been established, India's media and some aviation experts have said the runway at Mangalore was not wide or long enough and may have given little room for the pilot to react after landing.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has said the runway should not be blamed for the crash, adding the Mangalore crash should be seen as an isolated incident.

India has had several near misses in the past few years, underscoring aviation safety issues.