Survivors treated for injuries and reunited with their families
More than 100 survivors were treated in hospitals after an Air India Express flight from Dubai crash-landed at Kozhikode in Kerala.
Doctors fought to save the critically injured passengers who were rescued after Flight IX-1344 overshot the runway on Friday while attempting to land in heavy rain.
Pilot Deepak Sathe, who was a former Indian Air Force officer, and co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar died of their injuries before they reached hospital.
A girl, 6, and another passenger were also among the dead at Mims Hospital.
Eighteen people were killed in the crash.
Survivors were treated for head injuries, fractures and burns, Dr Farhan Yasin, chief executive of Mims Hospital, told The National.
More than 100 patients were being treated in four private and government hospitals in Kozhikode city, which is also known as Calicut.
The relatives of the six-yearold girl who died were traced yesterday by rescue and medical agencies.
“All the patients have now been identified, and relatives are here in the hospital,” Dr Yasin said. “Surgeries are on today. Most of the cases are head injuries, burn cases, foot and hand fractures.”
“We have opened up five operating theatres for surgery. We are releasing information about the patients on our helplines so relatives can come to the hospitals to identify them,” he said.
Medical staff wearing protective equipment also checked the survivors for the coronavirus.
“We have opened a separate area in the emergency [department] to treat patients from the crash,” Dr Yasin said.
“We are also checking patients for Covid and taking all precautions. When there are mass casualties, we have to give these patients first preference and treating Covid becomes secondary now.”
The airline said teams were at the scene to begin an investigation into the cause of the crash.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all the passengers and crew and their families at this time of grief,” it said.
Hardeep Singh Puri, India’s civil aviation minister, said a bigger tragedy was averted as there was no fire.
“Our task would have been more difficult if the plane had caught fire,” he said.
“The weather condition was unfavourable due to the monsoon. It appears the pilot tried to stop on the runway, but the accident occurred because of slippery conditions. It is best that investigators are allowed to complete their work.”
There have been other accidents where Air India Express flights skidded off the runway.
More than 180 passengers were taken off safely when a flight from Dubai veered off the runway in June last year at Mangaluru in southern India.
The crash in Kozhikode on Friday happened 10 years after another accident at Mangaluru airport that killed 158 people.
There were eight survivors in May 2010 when a flight from Dubai overshot the runway and crashed into a gorge.
Mangaluru and Kozhikode have so-called tabletop runways that are on a plateau adjacent to a valley or gorge.