Air India Plane Crashes While Landing in India's Mangalore

An Air India Express plane overshot the runway and burst into flames while landing in heavy rain in southern India, killing all but three of the at least 166 people aboard in the country’s first fatal commercial air crash in a decade.

“We have been able to confirm three survivors,” said Prabhakar Sharma, additional deputy commissioner of Mangalore district in southern Karnataka state. The plane “is almost completely burnt,” he said. There was little chance of more people being found alive, state home minister V.S. Acharya said by phone.

Television channels including CNN-IBN and NDTV 24x7 showed flames and thick smoke billowing from a forested area at the end of the runway. Broadcasters said the plane crashed through a boundary wall and fell into a ravine. Firefighters had to cross a railway line and battle through trees to reach the wreckage, according to the reports.

There were 137 adults, 23 children and six crew aboard the low-cost flight IX-812 when it crashed this morning, Sharma said. The survivors have been taken to a hospital 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the crash site, he said. Acharya put the total number of passengers and crew at 169.

CNN-IBN showed a rescue worker carrying the foam-covered body of young girl up a mud bank away from the crash. It was not immediately clear if she was one of the survivors.

‘Grievous Loss’

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed condolences over the “grievous loss of life” in a statement, announcing compensation for those killed. Singh postponed celebrations to mark the first anniversary of his re-election.

The Boeing Co. 737-800 plane flying from Dubai to Mangalore crashed at 6:30 a.m. local time, Air India spokesman Swaminathan said by telephone. The crash may be the worst in India in 14 years, according to the Aviation Safety Network website.

There was heavy rain and fog at the time of the crash, Sharma said. Civil aviation officials are on their way to Mangalore from the Karnataka capital city of Bangalore, he said.

Boeing is sending a team to provide technical assistance to the investigation at the invitation of Indian authorities, the Chicago-based aircraft manufacturer said in a statement.

Air India said in statement it was deploying “all its resources” to assist the families of passengers.

India will be the fastest-growing air travel market for the next 10 years, Airbus SAS, the world’s biggest planemaker, predicts. Over the next 20 years, Indian carriers will need 1,030 new aircraft worth $138 billion, it forecasts.

Bihar Crash

In the South Asian country’s last major air disaster, a Boeing 737-200 crashed into a residential area while approaching Patna airport in the eastern state of Bihar in July 2000. The Alliance Air aircraft, which carried 52 passengers and six crew, nose-dived into a house one kilometer short of the airport, killing 45 passengers, all crew members and two people on the ground.

Air India had debt of 152 billion rupees ($3.3 billion) as of June, according to the government. It may post a loss of 54 billion rupees for the fiscal year ended March 31, compared with a loss of 55.5 billion rupees a year earlier, according to Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel.

International air travel has rebounded from last year’s slump as the global economy expanded. Indian airlines carried 16.82 million passengers between January and April this year, 22 percent more than a year earlier, according to the Civil Aviation Ministry.

Like state-controlled Chinese carriers and Japan Airlines Ltd., Air India has sought government aid as it flies unprofitable routes and faces growing competition from carriers including Singapore Airlines Ltd.