Air India Plane Crashes with 190 People on Board, Killing Both Pilots and at Least 15 More

Aug 08,2020

Air India Plane Crashes with 190 People on Board, Killing Both Pilots and at Least 15 More

A plane with nearly 200 passengers crashed in India on Friday, killing at least 17 people.

A Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway at its destination in Kozhikode, India, where it was arriving from Dubai, UAE, India's Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said Friday.

Puri said that the plane "overshot the runway in rainy conditions & went down 35 ft. into a slope before breaking up into two pieces."

The plane had 190 people on board, Puri confirmed on Twitter, including 174 adult passengers, 10 infants, four cabin crew members and two pilots, who both died in the crash.

At least 17 people have died, the airline said in a statement on Twitter.

At least 46 were injured, CNN reported — though that number could continue to rise.

It was raining in Calicut at the time of the crash, and the plane did not catch fire — but photos from the scene are grisly.

One photo showed the plane with a gaping hole in the middle as dozens of first responders surrounded the aircraft. Passengers were photographed on gurneys being carted into the hospital as first responders and media members wore masks.
Puri later tweeted that rescue operations had been completed and all of the injured were being treated at local hospitals.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted support for the families of the victims of the crash.

"Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode," he wrote. "My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected."