Recovery efforts continue in plane crash

May 23, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Los Angeles Times

NEW DELHI

Searchers combed a steep, wooded hillside in southern India on Saturday for the remains of 158 passengers and crew of an Air India Express flight and clues to the cause of the country’s worst aviation accident in a decade.

With the black-box voice recorder not yet recovered, it was unclear why Flight IX-812, carrying mostly migrant workers returning from the Persian Gulf, overshot the runway in Mangalore and plunged down the hillside early Saturday. Officials said the weather had been good at the time, and there were no indications so far of mechanical problems or a communications mix-up with air-traffic control.

Both the British pilot and the Indian co-pilot were experienced at landing at Mangalore’s tricky table-top airport, officials said. However, they said human error might have been a factor.

The five-hour flight from Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, had 166 passengers and crew. Eight people survived the fiery crash. Officials said all the survivors had been seated in middle seats.

One survivor, passenger Umar Farooq, told local media from his hospital bed that he had jumped from the plane after impact. He walked, got a ride on a motorcycle and then a three-wheeled auto-rickshaw taxi to the hospital, where he was being treated for burns to his face and hands.

“It has been a hair-raising experience, and I am fortunate to still be alive,” he said.

Officials said that there were 23 children onboard, including four infants. In addition to the pilots, the Boeing 737-800 carried a cabin crew of four.

“There was no SOS or any contact between the pilot and [air-traffic control] after a clearance was given to land,” said Peter Abraham, director of the Mangalore Airport.