20 dead as Air India plane overshoots Karipur’s table top runway, drops into gorge
20 dead as Air India plane overshoots Karipur’s table top runway, drops into gorge
Srinagar August 8 (PTK) An Air India Express plane with 190 on board from Dubai overshot Karipur’s table top runway and dropped about 35 feet into a gorge on Friday evening.
Officials said 20 people, including the pilot Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and the co-pilot have died in the accident and over 140 were injured, among them some are serious.
They said said it was raining heavily when pilots of the Boeing 737 plane from Dubai tried to land. According to reports, the plane continued to run at a high speed and skidded off the runway when the pilots tried to stop it.
The regulator said after landing at Runway 10, the plane continued running till the end of the runway and fell into the valley and broke into two portions.
The accident took place at about 7.40 p.m.
There were 190 people on board the Air India Express flight AXB1344 including 174 passengers, 10 infants and four crew members. Air India Express is a subsidiary of state-run airline Air India.
The flight from Dubai was a repatriation flight carrying Indian citizens back to the country under the Vande Bharat Mission, meant to bring home stranded people from other countries amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Regular commercial flights have been halted in India because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Officials said the plane did not catch fire or the casualties would have been higher.
The rescue operation was started and injured were immediately hospitalised.
Meanwhile PM Modi, HM Amit shah and many other leaders from different parties have expressed grief over the incident.(PTK)
