Kozhikode:
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has announced Rs 10 lakh interim relief for each of the deceased, Rs 2 lakh for the seriously injured and Rs 50,000 for those who suffered minor injuries in Air India Express (AIE) flight mishap in Kozhikode.
All these compensation will be part of AIE's insurance claims taht would settled over a period of time, said sources.
Reasons for Air India Express flight crash at Karipur airport being investigated, said Puri
The death toll in the Air India Express flight crash at the airport here, rose to 18 on Saturday with one more passenger succumbing to injuries.
Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan told reporters here that one more passenger had succumbed to injuries.
Except one, all those who had perished in the accident have been identified,he said.
Seventeen people were killed and scores injured when the AIE flight from Dubai with 190 on board overshot the table toprunway while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two portions on Friday night.
The pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Sathe and his co- pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who lost their lives.
The aircraft lay split into at least two chunks after the plane’s fuselage sheared apart as it fell into a valley 35 feet below, authorities said.
Mumbai based state owned New India Assurance(NIA) is the primary insurer of Air India and the total cover for the airlines is heavily reinsured, upto almost 95 per cent, in the London market.
“There will be major hull claims as the aircraft is completely damaged. There will be also claims on account of the death of both the pilots and injuries suffered by the passengers,'' said insurance industry sources.
Air India had renewed its cover on Apr 1 and had paid around $29 million as premium, to insure the aircraft or hull and liability for third party and passengers, for a sum insured of $ 10 billion..
Dgital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) has been recovered from the aircraft. Floorboard is being cut to retrieve Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR): Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official
“Because of the weather conditions, he could not land the first time, so he did a turnaround and tried to approach it from a different direction,” Puri told national broadcaster DD News, adding that only an investigation would reveal the cause of the crash.
Puri said authorities managed to rescue most of the passengers because the plane did not catch fire while descending the slope at the end of the table-top runway. Such runways are located at an altitude and have steep drops at one or both ends.
“The good news is that the plane broke up and we were able to access the passengers,” Puri said. He said rescue operations had been completed.
It was India’s worst passenger aircraft accident since 2010, when another Air India Express flight from Dubai overshot the table-top runway at Mangalore and slid down a hill, killing 158 people.
Media reports suggested the plane skidded off the runway of Calicut, crashing nose-first into the ground.
Boeing said it was gathering more information about the incident, closely monitoring the situation.
TV visuals showed the aircraft’s nose smashed into a brick wall, with much of the middle of the plane pulverised.
Local TV news channels showed passengers, some of them lying motionless on stretchers, brought into a hospital surrounded by health workers wearing masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode” Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted. “My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest.”
Union Minister VMuraleedharan reached the city from Delhi.
Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan are also expected to reach the airport by around 9 AM.
An Air India Express statement on Saturday said Chairman and Managing Director of Air India, Chief Officer of the Air India Express, Chief of Operations and Chief of Flight Safety of AIX have already reached the airport here.
Special relief flights have been arranged from Delhi and one from Mumbai for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and their family members, the statement said.
The Emergency Response Director is coordinating with all the agencies in Kozhikode, Mumbai and Delhi for effective emergency response.
The AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) , DGCA and Flight Safety department have reached the city to investigate the accident,the statement said.