The jetliner nosedived and cracked in two, leaving at least 18 dead and more than 120 injured.
Survivors of an Air India express plane crash say the jetliner swayed violently as it approached a hilltop runway soaked by monsoon rain. Moments later, the special return flight for Indians stranded abroad by the pandemic skidded off, nosedived and cracked in two, leaving at least 18 dead and more than 120 injured. Among the injured on Friday night, at least 15 were in critical condition, said Abdul Karim, a senior police officer in southern Kerala state. The dead included both pilots of the Air India Express flight, the airline said in a statement, adding that the four cabin crew were safe. CBS News has confirmed the captain of the flight was Deepak Vasant Sathe, a former test pilot in the Indian Air Force. The 2-year-old Boeing 737-800 flew from Dubai to Kozhikode, also called Calicut, in Kerala. There were 174 adult passengers,10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew on board. In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Renjith Panangad, a plumber who was returning home for the first time in three years after losing his job at a construction company in Dubai, said the plane swayed before the crash and everything went dark. He said he followed other passengers who crawled their way out of the fuselage through the emergency exit. “A lot of passengers were bleeding,” said Panangad, who escaped without major injuries. “I still can’t comprehend what happened. As I am trying to recall what happened, my body is shivering.” He said the pilot made a regular announcement before landing, and moments after the plane hit the runway, it nosedived. “There was a big noise during the impact and people started screaming,” he said. Passenger Renjith Panangad,34, recalled the plane touching the ground and then everything went “blank”. “After the crash, the emergency door opened and I dragged myself out somehow,” he told AFP from a hospital bed in Kozhikode.
