Kerala’s Kozhikode airport shut, flights diverted after Air India Express plane crash

There were 190 people, including 10 infants, and two pilots and four cabin crew, onboard the Air India Express aircraft, the civil aviation ministry said.

Kerala’s Kozhikode airport was closed temporarily and all incoming flights diverted to either Kannur and Cochin international airports on Saturday, officials said, hours after an Air India Express plane from Dubai crashed while landing killing at least 20 people.

Rescue operations at the Kozhikode airport after an Air India Express flight with passengers on board en route from Dubai skidded off the runway while landing on Friday. (PTI Photo)

Authorities have said the Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode with 190 people on board overshot the tabletop runway at the Kozhikode on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and snapped into two.

Follow latest updates on Kerala plane crash here

The pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Sathe, a former Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force (IAF), and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who died, officials said. “Unfortunately the pilots have passed away and we are in touch with their families in grief,” said an Air India Express statement past midnight.

The Boeing 737 aircraft on a flight overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport at 7.41pm on Friday, the civil aviation ministry said. “No fire was reported at the time of landing,” it said.

There were 190 people, including 10 infants, and two pilots and four cabin crew, onboard the aircraft, the ministry added.

It was a repatriation flight operated by the Centre under the ‘Vande Bharat’ mission to bring home Indian nationals hit by international travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic.