At least 18 people were killed and another 16 severely injured after an Air India Express plane skidded off the runway, crashing nose-first into the ground on Friday, officials said.
The plane, which was bringing Indians stranded in Dubai due to the COVID-19 pandemic back home, overshot the runway of the Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode Friday.
The flight was carrying 190 passengers and crew.
The plane’s pilot and the co-pilot were killed in the accident, K Gopalakrishnan, chief of the Malappuram district in the southern state of Kerala, told Reuters.
The Boeing-737 plane slid off the table-top runway of Calicut and crashed nose-first. Such runways are located at an altitude with steep drops at one or both ends.
Most passengers survived because the plane didn’t catch fire when it skidded off the runway, an aviation official said.
