At least 158 feared dead in India plane crash
(CNN) — At least 158 people are feared dead after a passenger jet overshot a runway, crashed into a valley and burst into flames in southern India on Saturday morning, officials said.
Eight of the 166 people on board Air India Flight IX-812 were taken to hospitals after the crash outside Mangalore International Airport, the airline’s director told reporters.
The Boeing 737 took off from Dubai and crashed while trying to make its scheduled landing in Mangalore at 6:30 a.m. Saturday (9 p.m. ET Friday), Air India Director Anup Srivastava said.
Witnesses said the plane crashed through the hilltop airport’s boundary wall and fell into a valley, CNN-IBN reported.
Survivors told CNN’s sister network that they jumped out of the plane after it crashed, seconds before it burst into flames.
Rescue workers struggled to reach the crash site in a hilly wooded area beyond the 2,038-foot runway, the network said. Smoke from the plane also hampered rescue efforts, CNN-IBN reported.
Rescuers had recovered 116 bodies from the wreckage, Air India Director Anup Srivastava told reporters Saturday as the search for others victims of the plane crash continued.
Abhay Pathak, a regional manager for Air India based in Dubai, said there were 160 passengers on board the plane and six crew members.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced financial aid for the victims Saturday and canceled scheduled events at his residence to mark the end of his first year in office.
The government said families would receive 200,000 rupees, or about $4,260, for each dead passenger and 50,000 rupees, or $1,064, for every injured passenger.
The airline has offered any relatives of crash victims in the United Arab Emirates free passage to India, Pathak said, and about 20 people have accepted the offer.
Srivastava said India Air was investigating the crash and trying to confirm casualties.
The pilot did not report any problems before landing the plane, the civil aviation ministry said.
The Mangalore airport reported calm wind, no rain and a visibility of 6 km at the time of the crash, the ministry said.
Boeing released a statement saying the company would send a team to provide technical assistance to Indian authorities during their investigation.
The 8,000-foot runway at Mangalore’s airport opened in 2006, and officials say it has an end-safety area of about 90 meters.
Air India has released the following telephone numbers to learn more information about the crash:
General: +91 2560 3101 +91 2565 6196
In Mangalore: 0824 222 0422
Dubai (Air India Express): 00971 4 2165828/29
