One of the survivors to Kozhikode air crash, Ramshad calls his and his family’s escape from the tragedy ‘miraculous’. Ramshad, his pregnant wife and a four-year-old daughter, escaped the Air India Express plane crash at Karipur International Airport on August 7, which has killed 18 people. 

Speaking to ANI, Ramshad said, “I feared that aircraft will explode and I was running with my family to safety. It’s a miracle that we escaped unhurt. I thank Almighty for it.”

“Pieces of cabin luggage fell on my daughter. I somehow managed to get up and took her. My wife also got up after the initial shock. We managed to reach the wing of the aircraft and jumped out. There were cries and utter chaos all around us,” he further told ANI.

The Air India Express flight coming from Dubai on August 7 overshot the runway while landing, and fell into a 35 ft deep valley, splitting into two. 190 people were onboard the flight, which was repatriating Indians stuck in Dubai, as a part of government’s Vande Bharat mission.  

Also Read: DGCA bars the use of wide-body aircraft at Kozhikode airport

A probe the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) into the incident has been initiated. The team investigating the crash, is in the process of transcribing the data from the retrieved black box which comprises both flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. 

The tabletop runway is being blamed for the Kozhikode crash.  In 2010, a similar accident of air crash at tabletop airport in Mangalore took place, which had killed 158 people.