‘Fuel leaked out... it was a miracle that the plane did not catch fire’

Flightradar24 data shows a distinct difference in plane’s approach speeds

Investigators have recovered the “black box” flight recorders from an Air India Express plane that crashed in southern India killing at least 18 people, the aviation minister said yesterday.

The plane carrying 190 people crash-landed during bad weather on Friday night.

The Boeing 737, on a special flight from Dubai, overshot the runway at Kozhikode in Kerala state, plunged down an embankment and broke up. “Fuel had leaked out so it was a miracle that the plane did not catch fire, the toll could have been much higher,”a senior emergency official at the scene said.

Aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced that the flight data and cockpit voice recorders had been found.

According to live flighttracking app Flightradar24 and aviation experts quoted by Indian media, the Boeing 737-800 aircraft had landed more than one km down the length of the runway with a tailwind in rainy conditions.

The Flightradar24 data showed a distinct difference in the approach speeds on the aircraft’s first and second landing attempts: during the first approach, the plane was flying at a ground speed of 149 knots (276 kmph) at an altitude of 2500 feet, while the second approach from a similar altitude came at a ground speed of 191 knots (354 kmph). The difference in speed “could be attributed to the presence of a tail-wind,” aviation safety expert Captain Amit Singh told NDTV, adding: “This would not be an ideal ground speed when you are on short finals in these conditions.”