Plane Crash in Southern India Leaves 158 Dead

(May 22) -- An Air India Express plane with 166 people aboard tried to land in the rain at a hilltop runway today in southern India but overshot the runway and crashed into a forested ravine. Eight passengers are believed to have survived.

Indian TV footage shows firefighters spraying the smoldering wreckage outside Mangalore as hundreds of relatives who'd been awaiting the plane's arrival scramble to pull bodies from under twisted metal and charred trees. Some victims were still seat-belted in but burned beyond recognition. Exact numbers of dead and survivors were still being calculated.

"The plane shook with vibrations and split into two," a survivor named G.K. Pradeep told CNN-IBN television. His hands and feet burned, he said he and four other people jumped out of the plane before a small fire sparked an explosion that engulfed the whole aircraft.

An Associated Press photo showed two rescuers running up a hill carrying a young girl covered in foam to waiting medics. Though no details were available, the girl was believed to have died, because officials said the only female survivor was an adult. The plane was carrying 160 passengers -- all Indian -- and six crew members, Air India official Anup Srivastava said.

"There was a loud bang, and the plane caught fire," another survivor, Ummer Farook Mohammed, told The Associated Press. Details and casualty tolls were reported by several local and international news agencies.

The Boeing 737 was en route from Dubai, trying to land at Mangalore's brand new terminal surrounded by tropical forests and mountains. The facility had just opened a little over a week ago, after a debate over whether the runways were large enough to handle international flights.

Deep gorges cut into the surrounding land just 30 yards from the airport, and its runways are known to be difficult to land on, especially during India's rainy season. Cyclone Laila hit the area earlier this week, and heavy pre-monsoon rain continues to pour down through thick fog today.

"This is a major calamity," V.S. Acharya, home minister for the state of Karnataka, told CNN-IBN.

Mangalore's "tabletop" runway "has challenges and the experience of the pilot is critical," Kapil Kaul, CEO of the Indian unit of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, told Bloomberg News. But he added, "India's safety record has been as good as it gets."

This is the country's first fatal air crash in nearly a decade.

Both pilots aboard had flown in and out of Mangalore in the past week, Bloomberg reported. A British national with 10,000 hours of flying experience was at the controls at the time of the crash, Indian media said. It's unclear whether the pilots are among the survivors.

The pilot apparently missed the landing threshold by as much as 2,000 feet, according to India's aviation minister, Praful Patel. That's the point where it's critical that the plane make contact with the tarmac, especially at airports where runways are shorter than most because of hilly terrain. The plane then veered off the end of the runway and smashed through a barrier.

"The wing fell off and the aircraft plunged into the valley," Patel told reporters at a news conference.

Air India said in statement it was deploying "all its resources" to assist the families of victims. There were 160 passengers aboard, all Indians, and six crew members, it said. The Boeing 737 was less than three years old, and this is Air India's first disaster.

Boeing is also sending a team to provide technical assistance after a request from Indian authorities, the Chicago-based company said in a statement.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his condolences over the "grievous loss of life" and also announced compensation for the families of those killed. He has postponed celebrations that were due to be held this weekend to mark the first anniversary of his re-election.

Under the Air India Express brand, the airline runs cheap flights to Dubai and other destinations in the Middle East, where millions of Indian expatriates work.

Air India, which is owned and operated by the Indian government, has had financial troubles in recent years. It's also suffered bad publicity over a series of embarrassing incidents, including a recent midair scuffle between pilots and flight attendants that left the plane unmanned for a few minutes, according to The New York Times. In September, an Air India flight to Canada was delayed for 11 hours while staff searched for rats that had scurried on board.

Among those killed today was a staffer for Dubai's Gulf News, as well her husband and their daughter, who were traveling to India to attend a cousin's wedding, the newspaper reported.

India's worst-ever plane crash was in 1996, when a Saudi Arabian airliner collided in mid-air over India with a plane from Kazakhstan, killing all 349 people aboard both flights. Today's crash is the deadliest one since then. But India's most recent air disaster was in 2000, when a Boeing 737 went down in the eastern state of Bihar, killing more than 50 people.