分类： bharat

India mourned the deaths of 18 passengers of the ill-fated Air India Express (AIE) flight that skidded off the tabletop runway and broke into two on landing at Kerala’s Kozhikode Airport, also known as the Karipur International Airport, on Friday evening.

Pilot of the flight, Capt Deepak Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar Sharma are also among the 18 who died in the tragic flight mishap.

The AIE flight (IX-1344) from Dubai with 190 people on board including a 6-member crew overshot the table-top runway while landing at the Karipur Airport and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions.

Rest of the passengers were rescued from the crash site and rushed to hospitals for treatment. Of them, 23 are said to be in critical condition while another 23 have been discharged after initial medical assistance.

The crucial black box Air India Express flight, that could throw light on how it overshot the runway and crashed, has been recovered.

Kerala government on Saturday announced Rs 10 lakh compensation to the families of those who died in the incident. Air India Express also announced compensation for those killed in the plane crash. Air India Express said it will give Rs 10 lakh to the next kin of the deceased passenger 12 years and above, Rs 5 lakh to the passengers below the age of 12 years, Rs 2 lakh to critically injured passengers and Rs 50,000 to the passengers who are injured in the incident.

Black box of Air India flight retrieved

Officials on Saturday said that the crucial black box of the ill-fated Air India Express flight that could throw light on how it overshot the runway and crashed has been recovered.

Investigations into the cause of the crash are underway with top officials of the airlines and aviation regulator DGCA rushing to Kozhikode while Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri also arrived in this city in north Kerala and took stock of the situation and implementation of the relief measures.

“Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is conducting investigations,” Puri tweeted.

The minister said he would hold consultations “with senior civil aviation officials & professionals”, adding reasons for the mishap, in which the two pilots were among those dead, were being investigated.

The digital flight recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the Air India flight that crashed in Kerala’s Kozhikode were recovered on Saturday morning. The devices may be crucial in the investigation to know what caused the crash.

The recovered components will be crucial in learning about the last moments before the flight skidded on runway on Friday and killed 18 people including two pilots.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had said the Air India Express plane, carrying 190 people from Dubai, on Friday touched down near a taxiway that is around 1,000 metres from the beginning of the runway at the Kozhikode airport before breaking up into two pieces.

The pilot of the ill-fated flight — IX-1344 — could not sight the runway in the first landing attempt due to heavy rains.

The Kozhikode airport in Kerala has a table-top runway and is operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Generally, table-top runways are constructed on a hilly or an elevated terrain.

At least 18 people, including two pilots, have died in the crash.
An AAI spokesperson said that runway 28 was in use and in the first landing attempt, the pilot could not sight the runway and requested for runway 10.

Citing information from the Air Traffic Controller (ATC), the spokesperson said the aircraft touched down near taxiway ‘C’, which is approximately 1,000 metres from the beginning of runway 10. The total length of the runway is 2,700 metres.

Rescue operations were completed around midnight and airport operations resumed at 3 am on Saturday morning.

The Boeing 737-800 aircraft while landing overshot the runway and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces.

The Coronavirus cases in India on Thursday crossed 2 million-mark, with the countrywide figure surging to 20,19,930. 

This is the ninth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000.

On Thursday morning, the health ministry said India had recorded a single day increase of 56,282 COVID-19 cases taking the country’s virus tally to 19,64,536, while the recoveries surged to 13,28,336.

The death toll due to COVID-19 climbed to 41,573 with 891 new fatalities being reported in 24-hours, according to a  PTI tally.

The fatality rate has further dropped to 2.07 per cent, the data stated.

India is behind Brazil, which has more than 2.8 million cases and the US, which is leading the list of nations hit worst by the pandemic, with close to 5 million cases.

According to the ICMR, a cumulative total of 2,21,49,351 samples have been tested up to August 5 with 6,64,949 samples being tested on Wednesday. 

On Thursday morning, the health ministry update said that of the 904 fresh deaths reported in the 24 hours since Wednesday monring, 334 are from Maharashtra, 112 from Tamil Nadu, 100 from Karnataka, 77 from Andhra Pradesh, 61 from West Bengal, 40 from Uttar Pradesh, 29 from Punjab, 23 from Gujarat,  17 from Madhya Pradesh, 13 each  from Rajasthan and Telangana, 11 from Delhi and Nine each from Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha.

Eight fatalities each have been reported from Bihar and Jharkhand, seven each from Haryana, Kerala and Puducherry, six from Assam, four from Goa, three from Uttarakhand, two each from Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Chhattisgarh, while Nagaland and Tripura have registered one fatality each. 

Of the total 40,699 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the maximum at 16,476 followed by 4,461 in Tamil Nadu, 4,044 in Delhi, 2,804 in Karnataka, 2,556 in Gujarat, 1,857 in Uttar Pradesh, 1,846 in West Bengal, 1,681 in Andhra Pradesh and  929 in Madhya Pradesh.

So far, 745 people have died of COVID-19 in Rajasthan, 589 in Telangana, 491 in Punjab, 455 in Haryana, 426 in Jammu and Kashmir, 355 in Bihar, 225 in Odisha, 136 in Jharkhand, 121 in Assam, 98 in Uttarakhand, 94 in Kerala.

Chhattisgarh has registered 71 deaths, Puducherry 65, Goa 64, Tripura 31, Chandigarh 20, Himachal Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands 14 each, Ladakh and Manipur seven each, Nagaland six, Meghalaya five, Arunachal Pradesh three, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu two and Sikkim one.