Another Airliner crash

Jim Goose · 22-05-2010, 08:30 PM

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...22/2906605.htm

Quote:

An Air India Express passenger plane en route from Dubai has overshot a runway and crashed outside an airport in southern India, killing almost everyone on board in one of the country's worst air accidents in years.

Mangalore deputy police commissioner R Ramesh said the plane, a Boeing 737 believed to be carrying 160 passengers and six crew, crashed in Mangalore about 6:30am on Saturday (local time) after overshooting the runway and ploughing into a forest.

At least eight people have been rescued from the plane, despite initial fears that everyone on board was killed.

The injured have been taken to local hospitals, but rescue workers say the chance of finding anyone else alive is bleak.

"My hands, face and legs are all burnt," one survivor, Uner Farooq, told the NDTV channel from his hospital bed with his head wrapped in bandages.

"There was a lot of smoke and fire inside and there was no way to get out."

Abdullah, another survivor, told local channel TV9 from hospital the plane had broken into two.

"I jumped out of the plane after it crashed. I saw two other people also come out," he said.

"There was tyre-burst kind of noise. I tried to get out of the front but saw that there was a big fire. So I went back again and jumped out from there."

Karnataka home minister VS Acharya called for local people's cooperation in what he called "this hour of crisis" and urged them to stay away from the crash site.

"It is feared that most of the people have died," Mr Acharya said.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has offered his condolences and says compensation will be paid to the families of the victims.

It was not immediately clear what caused the crash, although Ramesh said the airport had been lashed by heavy rains, which had hampered rescue efforts.

Television footage suggested the plane had partially broken up, with smoke billowing from the main fuselage, as rescue workers sought to douse the fire with foam.

Rescue teams had to struggle down steep, wooded slopes to reach the plane, and were shown carrying body parts away from the site.

One television channel showed a fireman carrying in his arms what seemed to be the mangled remains of a child.

Charred bodies and an engine lay in the forested terrain, while hundreds of distressed relatives gathered at the airport and the crash site.

"The aircraft has broken up into pieces and fire has engulfed the aircraft. There is lot of smoke," senior police officer Gopal Hosur said.

"The flight had already landed. There was slight rain. The flight skidded off," eyewitness Mohiuddin Bava told CNN-IBN channel.

"After that it caught fire. Villagers, everyone there, came to rescue. The plane wings are right in front of me now."

Mangalore is a coastal city, about 320 kilometres west of Bangalore.

It is the worst plane crash in India since 61 people were killed when a passenger plane crashed into a residential area near the eastern city of Patna in 2000.

Air India Express is the budget arm of state-run carrier Air India.

- AFP/Reuters

The aircraft was VT-AXV delivered on 15th January 2008.

GT0132 · 22-05-2010, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Goose

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...22/2906605.htm

Yep , one of their worst , but nothing compared to the Air India Jumbo bombed over the Irish Sea in the mid 80's (I think)

MAGPIE · 24-05-2010, 05:45 PM

Crikey if this was a crashed Airbus the thread would be crawling with doom sayers

Jim Goose · 24-05-2010, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAGPIE

Crikey if this was a crashed Airbus the thread would be crawling with doom sayers

Yes strange isnt it....

**TUF_302** · 24-05-2010, 06:32 PM

I'm getting more and more afraid of flying every day!

grandpa_spec_F6 · 24-05-2010, 06:54 PM

Praying my girlfriend doesn't see this on the news, shes going for her first flight ever in a month or so :S

max · 25-05-2010, 12:07 PM

I feel like I need to see another one of these propaganda programs about how safe flying really is. I travel overseas and interstate regularly and no amount of flying rids me of that deep suspicion that there's too much to go wrong in this mode of transport.

RG · 25-05-2010, 12:14 PM

Seriously guys, it isn't that bad.

Do you fear driving everytime you see a fatal accident on the news? No.

Why should air travel be any different? There is more chance of you dying in an accident on the way to the airport.

sgt_doofey · 25-05-2010, 12:27 PM

More people die each year on the roads compared to airline crashes. Do you feel safe when you get behind the wheel or jump in to another car as a passenger?

aye you · 25-05-2010, 12:39 PM

Guys, the stats show that flying is the safest form of transport there is. The only reason people feel/think otherwise is because when there is an accident the media bash the hell out of it for days. If they did the same with car accidents no one would want to get behind the wheel of a car.

max · 25-05-2010, 01:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgt_doofey

More people die each year on the roads compared to airline crashes. Do you feel safe when you get behind the wheel or jump in to another car as a passenger?

You see this is the whole thing. I'm a control freak. Yes I do feel safe when I get behind the wheel. Not so when I get in as a passenger. Passenger in a car, bus, boat or plane. Makes no diff to me. If I am not at the helm, I don't feel at ease. I need help don't I? Hehehehe.........

Yellow_Festiva · 25-05-2010, 05:16 PM

I flew with 2 local 'budget' carriers while in India last year and their service was fine.

This could happen to anyone, anywhere and at any time.

A chap who was interviewed on TV said that the airport in question had 32,000 successful take off / landings since 2000.

There are some back streets of Delhi / Northern India that I feared more than flying while in India I can assure you!

sgt_doofey · 25-05-2010, 07:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by max

Makes no diff to me. If I am not at the helm, I don't feel at ease. I need help don't I? Hehehehe.........

Not at all. I have flown numerous times, but I never feel completely at ease as it just doesn't seem right being in a plane that far off the ground. Having said that, if you think about the number of flights that would fly each day around the world, it would be a staggering number, and only a few each year crash. Compare that to cars on the road and the number of crashes there?