Abdullah was one of the few survivors of an Air India Express jetliner that ended up in smoke after overshooting a hilltop runway at Bajpe Airport in Mangalore city at 6.05 a.m. Saturday. The plane plunged down a cliff and exploded, killing all but eight of 166 people on board.

“It all happened in just a few seconds,” said Abdullah by telephone from his bed in the KS Hegde Hospital where he is being treated for injuries.  “By the grace of Allah, I have survived. Fortunately I had a window seat, 19A.”

“The right wing was on the ground, but the left wing of the plane was up in the air. Then I saw the plane break into two in the middle. I had very little time. But I jumped out, about eight feet. I had two other people (with me) who did the same,” he said.

Abdullah said he walked up a hill, where rescuers from the village gave him water. His brother took him by car to the hospital.

Of the dead, 32 were women, 19 children and four infants, all coming from Dubai.

The other survivors were identified as  Joel Pratap D’Souza, G.K. Pradeep, Krishnan Koolikkunnu, Mayankutty K.P., Ummer Farook Mohammed, Sabrina Nasrinhuq and Mohamed Usman.
 

There was a sense of unease among the Indian expatriate community in general and passengers at Dubai International Airport as soon as they heard the news.  The large Indian community was in a state of shock as Saturday is a weekly holiday together with Friday in Dubai.

Worried friends and relatives started calling toll free numbers flashed on TV news channels. Among the victims were students whose CBSE grade 12 results were announced Friday and some of them had passed with distinction.

A Saudi who was taking a flight to Riyadh from Dubai said: “This is what fate is all about. See how air travel has become a necessity and a risk.” Some Europeans were shocked that this could happen in India, which was emerging as a technological giant.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel who flew to the crash site said three survivors sustained major injuries while one person escaped unhurt and others sustained minor injuries.

Police said 148 charred bodies were recovered nearly 10 hours after the crash. A majority of the victims were Keralites, most of them from the border district of Kasaragod. The entire six-member crew including the two pilots perished in the accident.

Air India Express, a subsidiary of India’s flag carrier Air India, is a low-cost airline operating flights mainly to Gulf countries.

Airport authorities said there was no distress call from the pilots when they got clearance for landing.

According to preliminary findings, there was no problem with the four-year-old runway or the two-year-old aircraft but the plane overshot the touchdown mark by about 2,000 feet.

“The plane shook with vibrations before it split into two. As soon as it hit the ground, I managed to get out and jump into a pit. There was smoke all over as the plane caught fire. After 10 minutes, there was an explosion,” survivor Pradeep said.

By evening, rescue workers recovered 148 bodies. Patel described the pilot, Zlatko Glusica, a UK national of Serbian origin, as seasoned and experienced, with about 2,700 hours flying a Boeing 737 and 10,000 hours in the cockpit. He was also familiar with the Mangalore airport and its runway, having flown in and out of it several times. The black boxes of the plane were recovered late in the evening.

An inquiry has been ordered by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) into the crash and an Air India team will assist it in the probe. The airport was shut down immediately after the accident but reopened after about eight hours.

Air India has opened help lines in Bangalore (080 66785172 / 080 22273310), Mumbai (022 2279 6161), Dubai (00971-4-2165828/29)  and Mangalore (0824-2451046/47).