All sixteen were Kerala residents, according to K Gopalakrishnan, a senior official from the Malappuram district. A total of 18 people died, including two pilots.
Details of the flight manifest, released by Air India Express, showed that the youngest victim was only one year old. The oldest passenger who died was 61 years old.
One of the victims tested positive for coronavirus, according to the prime minister of Kerala. The plane was one of the repatriation flights operated by the Indian government to bring back citizens stranded abroad due to Covid-19 travel restrictions, according to the Air India website.
Flight IX-1344 crashed after skidding off the runway and breaking in two while landing at Kozhikode Calicut International Airport on Friday night local time.
The flight from Dubai had 190 people on board at the time, according to Air India Express.
Images from Friday’s scene showed a broken fuselage with pieces of the plane scattered across what appeared to be a field, as well as people searching the debris.
“Around 100 ambulance services were deployed to take injured passengers to hospitals. The injured have been admitted to hospitals in the Kozhikode and Malappuram districts,” a Gopalakrishnan tweet reads.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, who arrived in Kozhikode on Saturday, tweeted that 149 people had been admitted to various hospitals, three of whom were seriously injured. Another 23 have been discharged, he said.
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Office (AAIB) will conduct a formal investigation into the accident, Puri said.
The flight overshot the runway in wet conditions, “dropping 35 feet on a slope before breaking in two,” he told CNN on Friday.
Puri also offered his “deepest condolences” to the families and friends of those killed. and wished the injured a speedy recovery.
One of those killed in the crash tested positive for Covid-19, a statement from Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Saturday.
Vijayan said that all passengers on the plane would be screened for coronavirus.
In a Twitter post, Shailaja Teacher, the state’s health minister, thanked rescuers for their timely response after the incident.
Some rescuers had to prioritize saving lives and not all were able to follow Covid-19 protocols, the minister said.
“We understand that while rushing to the site, many of you were unable to follow the COVID-19 protocol. Our priority was saving lives,” he wrote. “However, we now have to be vigilant again. We urge all who have been at the scene to take the necessary steps to keep yourself and others safe.”
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