By Editor: Adhya Kalra 

 

An Air India plane carrying 190 people on board including pilot and crew crashed at Calicut airport while landing in Kerala on 7^th August 2020, Friday evening. 18 people including 2 pilots and 4 infants have lost their lives in a devastating accident.

 

The Boeing 737 coming from Dubai overshot a runaway in rain also known as “table-top” in the aviation industry and broke into two parts after plunging into a 35 feet valley. The flight, being a part of ‘Vande-Bharat’ initiative was deporting Indians from Dubai, stranded because of the Pandemic.

 

The rescue operation began as soon as the incident took place and now have been completed wherein  172 people were rescued timely. Out of the 172, 156 were severely injured and were taken to hospitals in Calicut and Malappuram, informed by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. local people contributed by joining the police and Fire and Force personnel in the process of rescuing people, despite the restrictions and social distancing imposed during Coronavirus.

 

At least 2 civilians in the flight have been tested positive in the COVID-19 test. Therefore, The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) has directed its personnel involved in the rescuing of the passengers to quarantine themselves as a precautionary measure. Whereas the Kerala Health Department urged all those who assisted in the rescue operation and all the passengers to go into quarantine to avoid any further problems.

 

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri announced a relief fund of Rs 10 lakh for the families of each deceased, Rs 2 lakh for those who are seriously injured and of Rs 50000 for the people sustaining minor injuries.

 

Prime minister Narender Mod expressed his condolence by tweeting “Pained by the plane accident in Kozhikode. My thoughts are with those who lost their loved ones. May the injured recover at the earliest. Spoke to Kerala CM  @vijayanpinarayi Ji regarding the situation. Authorities are at the spot, providing all assistance to the affected.”

 

On Saturday, Chairman of Airports Authority of India (AAI), Arvind Singh informed that corrective measures would be taken after they receive the probe report. The black box has been recovered from the plane and will be taken to Delhi for the investigation. The black box is made up of digital flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.