Air India Express flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore carrying 166 passengers overshot the runway and caught fire while landing at the Mangalore airport, killing 158 people on May 22.
At 2am the ill-fated flight took off from Dubai International Airport. Captain Glusica, a 53-year-old British national, was in charge. It was a four-and-a-half hour long flight to Mangalore. The flight was scheduled to touch down at about 6.30 in the morning.
There were 166 passengers on board – 137 adults, 19 children, four infants and six crew members. Most of them were from Kerala.
When the narrow-bodied Boeing 737-800 approached the table-top runway at Mangalore, the wind was calm, it’s a bit cloudy, and visibility was clear up to six kilometres.
Captain Glusica and his co-pilot Captain S.S. Ahluwalia were cleared by Mangalore airport to approach for landing. About 10 miles short of the runway, the plane switched over to the Instrument Landing System.
What happened next was a mystery at the moment. The aircraft hit the tarmac about 2000 feet beyond its touchdown point. That proved fatal for the aircraft as it simply did not have enough runway left to break its speed.
The plane hit a fence, broke through the airport boundary wall and fell into the gorge beyond, breaking into two and catching fire on impact.
Of the 166 people on board, 158 perished but there was a miraculous escape for eight passengers.
According to eye-witness, the plane landed at 6.02am. In a matter of seconds, the pilot seemed to have lost control and sped towards the end of Runway 24, overshooting the sand-bedded safety area of 90 metres. Not being able to stop with the 90-metre safety area, the aircraft, barely 2-1/2-years old, plunged 300 metres down the cliff into the forested valley and broke up into flames after hitting a landing aid called the localiser at the extreme end of the safety area.
By this time, residents of Malavoor and Kenjaru villages had rushed to the spot and rescued six passengers who had managed to come out of the wreckage.
The survivors, all of whom have virtually got a second life, were identified as Joel Prathap D’Souza, Sabrina Hak, Umar Farouq Mohammed, Mayan Kutty, Pradeep G.K., Krishnan Kollikunnu, Abdul Puthur Ismail and Mohammed Usman.
Two inquiries have been ordered into the crash – one by the Civil Aviation Ministry and the other by DGCA. But, fingers were being pointed at the pilots. Captain Zlatko Glusica had made 19 landings at the 2,430 metre Bajpe table top landing strip and co-pilot H.S. Ahluwalia had done 66. While Gluscia had 10,200 hours of flying experience, Ahluwalia had 3,650 hours. Both the pilots are dead.
Civil aviation minister Praful Patel said the plane had landed “beyond the threshold” on the runway. In other words, the pilot touched down far too late on the 2,400-metre runway for the plane to halt in time.
Reports suggest that the Air Traffic Control received no distress signal in the moments before landing. So the reason for one of the country’s worst aviation disasters is still a mystery.
Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, Maulana Syed Jalaluddin Umari has expressed his deep grief and condolence over the sad accident of Air India flight. The Maulana, in his press statement, expressed his solidarity with the families of the deceased and with all the affected, to be patient and calm at this hours of misery. He also demanded the government to offer adequate compensation to the grieved families.
AMU Old Boys’ Association, Riyadh (AMUOBA), also expressed condolence over the tragic incident. In a statement, Mohammad Zaigham Khan, the association president, extended sincere condolences to the family members of those who lost their lives in most tragic manner. He said, “Our heart goes out in sympathy with those who lost their kith and kin. The loss, one can imagine, is more keenly felt by the kith and kin of deceased. However, we are with all the family members at this hour of sorrow and anguish. Our sincere thoughts and prayers are with them.”