At least 17 dead after Air India Express plane from Dubai crash-lands in Kerala

At least 17 people are dead and over a hundred more injured after an Air India Express flight crash-landed at Kozhikode International Airport in Calicut, located in the state of Kerala.

The flight was arriving from Dubai when it skidded off the runway during landing, according to the civil aviation ministry.

The ministry said 190 passengers and crew were on board the Boeing-737 at the time, including ten infants. In addition to the 17 dead, another 173 were also hospitalized, according to reporting from Reuters which cited the office of the chief minister of Kerala state.

India’s Union Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, said in a tweet that rescue operations were now complete and that injured were being treated at several hospitals in the city.

Puri also said that two investigative teams were also being dispatched to Kozhikode.

“As per the initial reports rescue operations are on and passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care,” read a statement from Air India.

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It added that there was no fire onboard the Boeing aircraft.

https://twitter.com/FlyWithIX/status/1291782619537928192?s=20

The Air India Express flight was a repatriation flight operated by the government to bring Indians home during international travel restrictions due to the spread of the novel coronavirus.

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Photos from the scene, posted on Twitter, appear to show the aircraft split into two pieces. Ambulances and other emergency services also appear to be on the scene, according to video from NDTV.

The incident occurred during heavy rainfall in the region, as India is in the midst of its monsoon season, BBC reported.

Friday’s crash is the worst passenger aircraft accident in the country since 2010, when an Air India Express flight, also from Dubai, overshot the runway and slid down a hill while landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, killing 158 people.

— With files from Reuters