India plane crash in Mangalore leaves about 160 dead
The Source: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/hadhramaut.info - 22/05/2010
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A plane has crashed on landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, with about 160 people feared dead.
Air India Express said there were eight survivors among the 160 passengers and six crew on board its plane.
Airline officials said the plane overshot the hilltop runway as it tried to land and burst into flames in a forested valley beyond.
The plane, a Boeing 737-800, was arriving from Dubai, with many Indian workers among the passengers.
Difficult access
The airline said the plane overshot the runway as it came into land at about 0600 (0030 GMT) and crashed into a valley. Pre-monsoon rains were repored to be falling at the time.
Mangalore airport is located at the top of a hill with a forested valley at the end of the runway. Analysts say it presents challenges for pilots.
TV pictures showed rescue workers and local villagers scrambling on steep hillsides to search the smoking wreckage.
A Mangalore police official told the BBC that smoke from the crash site had made it difficult for rescue workers to gain access to the plane.
Mangalore police superintendent Subramaneshwar Rao, said: "Chances [of finding many survivors ] are very bleak as most of the plane has been burnt out.
ANALYSIS
Continue reading the main story BBC New Delhi correspondent Sanjoy Majumder
Sanjoy Majumder BBC News, DelhiAir India Express is a budget airline and a subsidiary of the national carrier Air India.
This is the first crash in its relatively short history. The plane was no more than three years old.
Air India Express mainly caters to the southern Indian states of Kerala and Karnataka, where this plane crashed, with flights to and from the Gulf, where a large number of Indian nationals work.India has a relatively good air safety record but in the past decade there has been a rapid growth in the aviation industry - a number of new airlines have been launched. This has led to a shortage of some experienced crew.All of these are things the investigating teams will start looking into when they have completed the rescue operation."As far as the information available with us is concerned, eight persons were rescued and shifted to local hospitals in Mangalore for treatment," Air India official Anup Shrivasta told reporters.Of the eight survivors, one had already been discharged, two or three were being treated for minor injuries and another three had serious injuries, the airline said.Twenty-five bodies had been recovered.Many of the passengers were reported to be workers returning home from jobs in the Gulf. Several children were said to be among those on board.The pilot was said to be a non-Indian national with experience of Mangalore's airport.Air India Express began operations about five years ago as an offshoot of the state-run Air India.The BBC's Soutik Biswas in Delhi says India's air safety record has been good in the past decade, despite a rapid increase in the number of private airlines and air travel in the country.
The last major crash happened in the city of Patna in July 2000, killing at least 50 people, our correspondent adds.
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