COMPENSATION FOR VICTIMS, QUARANTINE FOR RESCUERS
Families of those killed to get Dh50,000 each; dozens of injured still in hospital
Nearly 150 injured passengers of the Air India Express flight IX 1344 from Dubai to Kozhikode that crashed at the Kozhikode airport on Friday remain in hospitals, even as the death toll in the accident rose to 19, according to officials in Kerala.
Some of the passengers being treated at five hospitals in Kozhikode are in critical condition, the Indian Consulate in Dubai tweeted yesterday, as authorities in Kerala asked local people who had rushed out to help the passengers trapped in the plane to go into quarantine.
Echoes of Mangaluru crash
The Boeing-737 plane skidded off the tabletop runway of Kozhikode, crashing nose-first into the ground in an echo of the 2010 Air India Express flight tragedy in Mangaluru.
A spate of Indian ministers and senior officials visited the accident site and the hospitals yesterday — including Kerala governor Arif Mohammad Khan, state chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, India’s federal aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri and junior foreign minister V. Muralidharan. Puri announced a compensation of Rs1 million (Dh50,000) each to the families of those killed in the accident.
Black boxes recovered
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau began its probe into the accident as both the black boxes — the digital flight data recorder (FDR) and the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) — were recovered from the crash site. In the absence of any SOS from flight captain D.V. Sathe, who was a retired Indian Air Force fighter pilot, the focus has turned to whether the flight approach and tailwind played any role in the crash. The flight was carrying 184 passengers, including nearly 40 children, and six crew members.
Rescuers told local media that some of the early scenes were heart-wrenching, with bodies strewn around and little children looking around for their parents even as some lay lifeless on the ground amid debris of the aircraft.
Deafening sound
M. Abhilash, a lawyer who lives close to the airport, said he heard a deafening sound and rushed to the site along with a few friends. “The plane was broken into pieces,” said Abhilash, who said there were cries of “help me,” from different parts. In contrast, some families heaved sighs of relief on being saved from the crash. P. Ramshad, 28, his wife Sufaira and their 4-year-old daughter Saidasherin were all lucky to escape almost unscathed.
State health minister K.K. Shailaja expressed gratitude to the first responders and reminded them to be in quaran
tine. “Please do be in self-quarantine. Don’t take this as an inconvenience,” Shailaja said.
The appeal came amid reports that one of the 19 victims had tested positive for Covid-19. Kerala higher education minister K.T. Jaleel told the media that samples of the passenger, Sudheer Varyath, 45, were sent for testing and had returned positive for the disease.
Over the past four months, Kerala chief minster Pinarayi Vijayan had been warning Keralites on a daily basis about the need to stay safe to fight a grim battle against the coronavirus pandemic.
That was before the rains started pounding the state this week, followed by the crash of an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode at the Karipur airport on Friday night. The virus, rains and air crash, combined with an ongoing financial crunch for the state government have together combined to put the state, touted as “God’s own country”, under severe stress.
Count the job losses of Keralites in Gulf countries and the tourism sector being devastated by the coronavirus pandemic and the misery is complete for Kerala. The state had initially been on top of the pandemic, with the state recording zero fresh cases in April, but from July the numbers began spiking and over the past week the daily cases have averaged over 1,000.
Low ratio of testing
The deaths from the pandemic are still below 100 but given the state’s low ratio of testing, it cannot afford to be complacent in fighting the pandemic. Last week the state government had given more powers to the police to step in and ensure that people did not violate Covid-19 protocols. The rain fury since last week has been the latest threat for
Kerala, with landslides, floods and rain-related deaths being reported from across the state.
On Friday, in a single landslip in Rajamalai in Munnar, a resort town in Idukki district, 18 lives were lost. There are more warnings of inclement weather from the meteorological department and the government has given red alerts for four districts, Wayanad, Palakkad, Thrissur and Idukki.
What makes Kerala’s situation particularly miserable at the moment is that the state government is facing a cash crunch owing to pandemicinduced economic meltdown.
Also, tens of thousands of Keralites are losing their jobs in the Gulf countries and elsewhere, which will seriously dent the state’s remittance earnings. Kerala has averaged an annual remittance income of over Rs1 trillion over the past few years.