Air India Express Crash Kills 158

One really wonders if the recent series of plane crashes will ever end. This morning at 6.10 am local time, an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 overshot the runway at Mangalore airport in the south of India, killing all but eight of the passengers on board.

The two-year old plane was on the way back from Dubai, carrying mostly Indian guest workers from the Emirate, when it crashed into a valley at the end of the runway. The weather at Mangalore airport was decent: good visibility, calm winds and no rain. The pilot, a British citizen, did not report any technical difficulties with the fairly new 737 on approach. The surviving passengers report they heard the tires of the plane burst, then the plane hit something and it caught fire. A survivor told Reuters: "[The plane] caught fire and we fell out. We looked up and saw some opening and came out through that route."

The cause of the accident has not been determined yet, but there can only be a couple of realistic reasons: The 737 might have had technical difficulties, so that the pilots could not brake (but then the tires would not have burst). Another possibility is that the plane touched down too late on the runway and the cockpit crew could not bring the 737 to a halt before hitting trees (this theory is supported by the bursting tires) - which would be a pilot error. Another reason is that the 737 hit the runway too hard, causing the tires to burst and then the brakes were, consequently, not fully functional. Whatever the reason, we will know it soon. There were, luckily, survivors and the black boxes have been found. The Aviation Insider will keep you posted!

To read the Reuters story, please click here. Click here for the The Hindu article.