Plane crashes in India, 159 dead

22 May 2010, An Air India Express passenger plane crashed in flames after overshooting the runway in the southern city of Mangalore on Saturday, killing 159 people on board.

Dubai helpline numbers DUBAI—The Air India Express office in Dubai Airport Terminal 2 has announced the helpline numbers - 04-2165828, 04-2165829, 04-2666950, 04 -2690118 On Saturday, an Air India Express passenger plane from Dubai overshot a runway and crashed outside the Mangalore airport in southern India, killing at least 160 people. The UAE relatives of the passengers, who wish to travel to India on an emergency basis, can contact the Indian Consulate in Dubai for emergency counseling services, a Consulate spokesperson said. They can contact the officials on 04- 3960174. The Consulate General of India Sanjeev Verma has reached the airport to conduct more inquiries in person. - Staff Report

There were only eight survivors after the Boeing 737-800, with 166 people on board including crew, appeared to have skidded off the runway in rain at Mangalore airport in Karnataka state, Air India director Anup Srivastava said.

All the passengers were Indian nationals, an Air India official in Dubai said.

Air India Express is the budget arm of the loss making state-run carrier Air India, which has been fending off growing competition from private airlines. First indications are that the crash was an accident, officials say.

Television channels said the plane crashed around 6:30 a.m. (0100 GMT). TV images showed it struck a forested area. Flames were seen blazing from the wreckage as rescue workers fought to bring the fire under control.

“The plane had broken into two. I jumped out of the plane after it crashed. I saw two other people also come out,” Abdullah, a survivor from the plane, told local channel TV9 from hospital.

“There was a 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.”

It was India’s first major crash in more than a decade, which has seen a boom in private carriers amid growing demand from India’s middle class.

A series of near misses at major airports, including Delhi and Mumbai, have sparked debate about how India’s creaking infrastructure was failing to keep pace with an economic boom.

Black box recovered

The black box has been recovered from an Air India Express passenger plane from Dubai that crashed on landing in southern India, the United Arab Emirates’ state media said.

“The black box of the aircraft has been recovered and the mandatory court of inquiry ordered by the Director General of Civil Aviation,” WAM reported.

Charred bodies

One television channel showed a fireman carrying what seemed to be the remains of a child. Charred bodies lay in the forested terrain.

“The flight had already landed. There was slight rain. The flight skidded off,” witness Mohiuddin Bava told CNN-IBN channel. “After that it caught fire. Villagers, everyone there, came to rescue.”

The last major crash in India was in July, 2000, when an Alliance Air Boeing 737-200 crashed into a residential area during a second landing attempt in the eastern city of Patna, killing at least 50 people.

With growing competition from private carriers, the Indian government agreed to infuse $1.1 billion into loss-making Air India if the ailing state-run carrier found the same amount in cost cuts and extra revenue.

The airline lost $875 million in the fiscal year ended March 2009.

Hundreds of Air India pilots went on strike in September 2009 to protest management plans to cut pay incentives. The strike was called off when aviation minister Praful Patel said the grievances would be dealt with.

Mangalore airport new terminal- Image courtesy: Wikipedia

Mysore airport has a table-top runway which means that it is located on a hill top, which demands accuracy and no room for error while landing.

According to sources, the pilot did not report any malfunction to the Airport Traffic Control (ATC), before landing.

Helpline Numbers

Following are the helpline numbers where information on the Mangalore Air India Express airplane crash can be ascertained:

Dubai: 04 2165829

Mangalore: (0824) 222 04 22/201 01 67

Delhi: (011) 256 031 01

Bangalore:(080) 222 73310

More News:

Angels of Air India' nurse crash survivors

Air India has deployed its full Emergency Response Team - 'Angels of Air India' - at Mangalore where Air India Express Dubai-Mangalore flight IX-812 crashed Saturday.

Last minutes of the ill-fated AI flight

From landing to plunging down a cliff - the last minutes of the Air India Express flight that crashed here Saturday morning killing 159 people:

List of passengers & crew members on crashed plane

Following is the list of passengers who travelled on the Air India Express plane that crashed Saturday in Mangalore city.

I heard the shrieks of co-passengers: survivor

“I saw the flight catching fire and heard the shrieks of my co-passengers inside the aircraft,” said Krishnan, who survived by escaping through a gap in the broken Air India Express aircraft seconds after it crashed in Mangalore .

Plane crash survivor recalls the horror

“It was drizzling but the plane appeared on course for landing. Soon after the aircraft touched the runway, I heard a sound and smoke started comming in the plane.

Mangalore air crash unlikely to hit Reliance: insurers

The Reliance General Insurance Company-led consortium, which insured Air India’s fleet including the Boeing 737 aircraft that crashed Saturday in Mangalore, may not be hit hard by the accident thanks to re-insurance, experts said.

Headed for funeral, wedding, Gulf-based families perish

A Saudi businessman lost 16 family members in Saturday’s plane crash in Mangalore who were going to attend his grandmother’s funeral. Another family from Dubai was on its way to a wedding when it perished in the tragedy.

Mangaloreans numbed by Air India tragedy

A week back it was celebrations for Mangaloreans as a new airport started operations, fulfilling a long pending demand.

Mangalore airport tests pilot’s skills: Minister

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said the Mangalore airport, where an Air India plane crashed Saturday, is known to test the limits of pilot’s skills.

Pakistan sends India condolences on plane crash

Pakistan Saturday sent its condolences to India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the deaths of 159 people in an Air India plane crash earlier in the day.

Mangalore tragedy an eye-opener: Air India

The Mangalore air crash that killed 158 people Saturday “points finger towards the faults in our infrastructure facilities in airports”, an Air India board member said.

Political parties grieve deaths in air crash

Expressing deep shock, political leaders Saturday condoled the loss of 158 lives in the Air India Express crash in Mangalore.

23 kids on board crashed plane

Nineteen children and four infants were on board the Air India aircraft that crashed.The Air India Express from Dubai broke up while landing, killing 159 people. Only eight people survived.

Dubai helpline numbers

The air India Express office in Dubai Airport Terminal 2 has announced the helpline numbers - 04-2165828, 04-2165829, 04-2666950, 04 -2690118

Crashed plane was in good shape, visibility not poor

Runway visibility was good for landing and there was no problem with the air India Express Boeing 737 that crashed in Mangalore, killing 158 people Saturday, the Airports Authority of india (AAI) said.

Flying to Mangalore is frightening: traveller

Landing in Mangalore is always a “fearful experience”, a Gulf News journalist who travels frequently to the indian city said after an air crash there Saturday killed 158 people.

Kerala declares two-day mourning

Kerala govt declared a two-day mourning Saturday for the victims of the air India Express plane disaster near Mangalore. Most of the passengers from Dubai to Mangalore were from Kerala.

Abu Dhabi man was going for mother’s funeral

Abu Dhabi based Shailesh Brahmavar Rao, who was on board the ill-fated air India Express aircraft that crashed Saturday morning in india’s Mangalore city, was travelling to india to attend his mother’s funeral.

Mangalore has one of India’s most turbulent airspaces

The Mangalore International Airport, where an air India Express flight crashed Saturday killing nearly 170 people, opened in 1951 as the Bajpe Aerodrome when then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru arrived on the maiden flight.

Source from khaleejtimes

Cargo aircraft crashes in northern Mexico; 5 dead

Posted 2010/04/14 at 1:31 pm EDT

MONTERREY, Mexico, Apr. 14, 2010 (Reuters) — A cargo aircraft crashed late on Tuesday near the airport in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, killing five people, Mexican emergency authorities reported.

A federal policewoman guards the site where a AeroUnion Airbus A-300 cargo aircraft crashed near the Mariano Escobedo international airport in Monterrey April 14, 2010. REUTERS/Tomas Bravo

---

The Airbus A-300 aircraft, operated by privately held AeroUnion, crashed near a major road leading to the airport. Some debris from the wrecked jet landed on the grounds of the airport itself, Mexican media reported.

"At present we believe there may be five people dead, two from the crew and three on the ground, but nothing is confirmed yet," said an official at the state emergency authority who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak with the news media.

Partially burned wreckage from the aircraft was visible on the road leading into the airport in an area near several hotels, a Reuters witness reported.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear.

(Reporting by Tomas Bravo in Monterrey and Armando Tovar and Robert Campell in Mexico City; editing by Todd Eastham)

Source from: NewsDaily

Passenger plane skids off runway in Indonesia

April 13, 2010

The Merpati airline Boeing 737, which broke into pieces at Rendani domestic airport in Manokwari, West Papua.

A routine domestic flight almost ended in disaster on Tuesday when a jet carrying more than 100 passengers broke apart on landing in Indonesia, injuring about 20 people, officials said.

The Merpati airline Boeing 737 bounced off the tarmac at Rendani domestic airport in Manokwari, West Papua, hurtled into trees and skidded into a shallow river, director general of civil aviation Herry Bhakti Singayuda said.

"All the passengers were in a total panic, some even screamed and cried," said passenger Zainal Hayat, 52, who crawled out of a crack in the fuselage and was being treated at hospital with facial injuries.

"We flew safely and the plane touched down smoothly on the runway but it just didn't stop. It skidded very fast and I felt it hit something twice before it stopped and tumbled down."

"I got out through a crack in the plane near my seat."

Singayuda said the plane came to a halt with its tail section in the river about 200 metres from the end of the landing strip.

"All 103 passengers and six crew members are safe. Some are injured. They have been rushed to hospital," he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade confirmed that no Australians were no board the flight.

Heavy rain and fog were suspected of playing a part in the crash, he added, although expert investigators had yet to arrive at the scene.

Manokwari Hospital emergency unit nurse Benget Hutagalung said "about 20" people had been brought in with shattered limbs and head injuries.

Witnesses said the left wing broke off as the plane smashed into the trees at the end of the runway. The cockpit was also almost completely separated from the rest of the fusilage.

The plane was flying a routine domestic route from Sorong, also in West Papua province, to Manokwari, a distance of about 340 kilometres.

Transport ministry experts from the capital Jakarta were on their way to the rugged province in the far east of the country to investigate the crash, an official said.

The vast archipelago of Indonesia relies heavily on air transport but has one of Asia's worst air safety records.

Merpati airline corporate secretary Sukandi suggested that rain played a part in the crash and ruled out pilot error.

"It was raining when the plane landed. The pilots followed all the safety procedures regarding landing in wet conditions," he said.

Indonesian airlines have been attempting to recover from a poor safety record in recent years.

In August last year a Merpati aircraft disappeared in remote Papua. Its wreckage was found two days later and all 16 passengers and crew aboard were killed.

Three years ago 21 people, including five Australians, were killed when a Garuda plane crashed on the runway at Yogyakarta airport.

Last year 102 people were killed in two separate crashes involving Indonesian military aircraft.

Shortly after the Garuda crash, the European Union banned all Indonesia-registered aircraft from flying to Europe. The EU lifted the ban on Garuda in December last year, citing improvements in the airline's safety standards.

AFP, Staff Reporters

Source from : Theage.com

Cathay Pacific Emergency Landing Injures 8

Posted on: April 14th, 2010 by Lisa Davidson

On Tuesday, a Cathay Pacific Airways flight had to make an emergency landing in Hong Kong when the plane was experiencing engine problems. The situation turned to one of the airline’s most serious incidents in the last few years, as 8 passengers were injured.

There haven’t been many details released from the Civil Aviation Department in Hong Kong or from Cathay Pacific officials as to what caused the incident. In a statement from the carrier, they said that it was the engine on the left of the plane that shut down while it was approaching its landing.

All that Tony Tyler, the airline’s chief executive, said was that the A330-300 was carrying 13 crew and 309 passengers when it encountered an engine issue while approaching the airport on a flight from Surabaya in Indonesia. He said that it was too early to speculate what caused the problem. He also reassured everyone that they will do whatever they need to make sure their fleet is the safest in the air.

Upon landing at the airport, a small fire started on the aircraft’s main landing gear. However, fire services quickly extinguished it. It is likely that the fire was caused by the tyres overheating when the pilots had to use the emergency braking system, according to the Civil Aviation Department.

The emergency slides were deployed for passengers to evacuate on the runway. 8 passengers were sent to the hospital for injuries to the head, arms and legs that were probably caused while evacuating, according to authorities.

Source from :News.carrental

Polish president, top officials killed in plane crash

President had been due to attend Katyn memorial

By Lidia Kelly, ReutersApril 10, 2010 9:35 AM

SMOLENSK, Russia, April 10 (Reuters) - Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski, its central bank head and the country’s military chief were among 97 people killed when their plane crashed in thick fog on its approach to a Russian airport on Saturday.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk described the crash as "the most tragic event of the country’s post-war history."

Ashen-faced and wearing a black suit and tie, Tusk told a news conference he would fly to the crash site.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin talked to Tusk by telephone and has also gone to the scene of the crash, a spokesman said.

The death of Kaczynski, who with his twin brother was a dominant force in Polish politics, brings political uncertainty. A presidential election had been due in October but now must be held within two months, according to the constitution.

The president’s wife and several other high-ranking government officials also were aboard the aged Tupolev Tu-154, which plunged into a forest about two km (1.3 miles) from the airport in the western Russian city of Smolensk.

Pilot error was a possible reason for the crash, said Andrei Yevseyenkov, spokesman for the Smolensk local government. Local officials said the plane had clipped treetops on its way down.

Thousands of mourners gathered outside the presidential palace, laying flowers, lighting candles and saying prayers. Church services in the predominantly Catholic country were hastily arranged.

Kaczynski, 60, was a one-time ally of Solidarity hero Lech Walesa and a co-founder of the rightist Law and Justice party with his brother. He resigned from the party when he became president in 2005 but continued to support it.

A party official told Reuters the president’s twin, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, had left for Smolensk.

Kaczynski’s death, along with that of many senior members of Law and Justice who also were on board, at a stroke changes the Polish political scene by wiping out much of the opposition.

"The political consequences will be long term and possibly will change the entire future landscape of Polish politics," said Jacek Wasilewski, professor at the Higher School of Social Psychology in Warsaw.

While the president’s role is largely symbolic, the holder can veto government legislation. Lech Kaczynski infuriated Tusk’s government several times by blocking legislation including health sector reform.

The speaker of the lower house of parliament, Bronislaw Komorowski, has been named acting president, as the constitution stipulates. Komorowski is also Tusk’s presidential candidate in the centrist Civic Platform party.

SMOULDERING FUSELAGE

Russian television showed the smouldering fuselage and fragments of the plane scattered in a forest. A Reuters reporter saw a broken wing some distance from the rest of the aircraft.

The plane was one of two Tu-154s in the government fleet, both about 20 years old. Government officials had complained about the age of Poland’s official fleet.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said 97 people were aboard, including 88 members of a Polish delegation en route to commemorate Poles killed in mass murders in the town of Katyn under orders from Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1940.

Smolensk regional governor Sergei Antufyev said there were no survivors of the crash. The Emergencies Ministry said the bodies of the victims would be transported to Moscow for investigation.

A Russian mission control official who was present during conversations with the pilot said the pilot had ignored advice.

"The pilot was advised to fly to Moscow or Minsk because of heavy fog, but he still decided to land. No one should have been landing in that fog," he told Reuters, on condition his name was not published.

A Russian military official was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying air traffic control instructed the pilot several times to divert to another airport.

Polish Justice Minister Krzysztof Kwiatkowski planned an inquiry into the crash. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Russian investigators would cooperate with the Polish side.

CENTRAL BANK CONTINUITY

Among the other casualties of the crash were Kaczynski’s wife Maria, along with Slawomir Skrzypek, 47, who had been central bank governor since 2007, the chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer.

Analysts said Polish markets would not be severely jolted. "Although tragic, we do not believe that this event threatens political and financial stability in Poland in any fundamental way," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.

Some relatives of victims of the Katyn massacres also were on board, said a Polish government official in Smolensk.

Thousands of Polish prisoners of war and intellectuals were murdered at Katyn by Soviet forces in spring 1940 in an enduring symbol for Poles of their suffering under Soviet rule.

The government declared a week of national mourning.

"I’m all broken up ... it cannot be expressed in words," said Ewa Robaczewska from outside the palace.

© Copyright (c) Reuters

Source from: Vancouverson

MAS plane makes emergency landing

March 26, 2010, Friday

PENANG: A Malaysia Airlines (MAS) Boeing 737 from Singapore to Langkawi via Penang, with 83 passengers and seven crew members on board, made an emergency landing at the Bayan Lepas International Airport here yesterday.Malaysia Airports Berhad (MAB) Senior Manager in Penang, Abdul Wahab Mohd Yusoff said the flight from Singapore to Langkawi had encountered engine trouble during approach into Penang and forced to make an emergency landing at 12.30pm.

However, the plane landed safely and all passengers and crew on board were safe. Abdul Wahab said the runway was closed for 20 minutes during which the plane was towed to the bay and reopened at 12.50pm.

“Flight MH674 departed Singapore at 11.05am and was expected to land in Penang before continuing its journey to Langkawi,” he said.

Meanwhile, a passenger on the flight, Eddie O’Hara from Sydney said before the plane made an emergency landing, he heard loud noises and saw fire and thick smoke from one of the engines.

“The captain made a circular movement and attempted to land on the runway but had to abandon the move and take off before making a second attempt successfully.

“I was seated by window on the right side of the plane and could see what was happening. I did not wake up my wife who was sleeping in the next seat. There was panic and it happened so fast,” he said. He also praised the pilot for being very professional throughout the ordeal and for his ability to land the plane safely without causing any injuries to the passengers or crew. — Bernama

Source : theborneopost