BackAir India Kozhikode flight death toll at 17, rescue operations completed
The accident occurred at 7.40pm local time when the flight from Dubai overshot the tabletop runway and crashedBoth the pilot and co-pilot are dead. There were 10 children on-board. The injured are admitted in various city hospitals
PremiumKOZHIKODE: The toll in the Air India Express flight that skidded off the Kozhikode airport runway Friday and crashed into a ravine, has touched 17, according to the District Collector S. Sambasiva Rao. He said rescue operations had been completed and the injured were being treated at various hospitals in the city. The figures are as of 1.11am Saturday local time.
The Boeing 737-800 aircraft performed a ‘go-around’ manoeuvre twice before it attempted to land, causing the plane to skid off the runway.
"Rescue operation is completed and all the passengers are taken into safe custody. Out of 190, 110 people are admitted into seven hospitals in Kozhikode. In that, 11 deaths occurred. Remaining 80 people are admitted in Malappuram hospitals. In that, six deaths occurred," he said.
The injured are admitted in 13 hospitals across Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, he added.
Flight IX-1344 from Dubai, a Boeing 737-800, carried 190 passengers including six crew members. The accident occurred at 7.40 pm local time. Pilot, Captain Deepak Vasanth Sathe, and co-pilot, first officer Akhilesh Kumar, were both killed in the accident.
The flight was part of the government’s Vande Bharat Mission that has been launched to bring overseas Indians wishing to come home.
"(The flight) started from Dubai at 2o’ clock local time there, (was) about to land here at 7.45 (pm) and got into accident, went into valley actually, broken into pieces. 190 people (were) there, 174 are adults, 10 are infants, plus six are crew," Rao said.
The collector said that going by initial accounts, most of those in the front rows of the flight seem to be severely injured. Of those admitted, he said, "there are a few serious cases also."
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