At least 18 people were killed in the Air India Express flight crash at Kerala’s
Kozhikode airport on August 7, after the plane skidded off the runway and
fell into a 35-feet valley.

The
pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were
among those killed. The Dubai-Calicut Air India Express aircraft was carrying 190 passengers as part of the Vande Bharat Mission.

At least 100 people were left injured in the incident.

On Friday, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi also expressed pain over the tragedy and said he
had spoken with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. “I have instructed the
police and the fire force to take urgent action in the wake of the plane crash
at the Kozhikode International airport (CCJ) in Karipur,” Vijayan, who is
expected to visit the site today, he said.

The aircraft
was attempting to land in bad weather when it shot the runway around 7.40 pm
and split into two after nosediving into a valley 35 feet below.

In a statement, the DGCA said, “Visibility was 2,000 meters and there was heavy rain.”

Rescue operations, which went on till 11 pm,
are over.

According to
PTI, 127 passengers are in hospitals while others have been discharged.

127 passengers are in hospitals while others have been discharged.

The Kozhikode
Airport has a tabletop runway which makes it challenging for pilots to land an
aircraft at. A tabletop runway is a landing strip located on top of a hill or
plateau with a deep gorge on one or both sides.

A tabletop runway is a landing strip located on top of a hill or plateau with a deep gorge on one or both sides.

Friday’s
accident comes over a decade after a similar incident at Mangalore airport. On
22 May 2010, a Boeing 737-800, flying from Dubai to Mangalore crashed while
landing killing 158 people. Only eight on board the aircraft survived the
crash.