Saturday morning, an Air India jet overshot the runway, crashed and exploded with 160 people aboard; 146 bodies have been recovered so far and 158 are feared dead, and 8 survivors were taken to hospitals (CNN reported that one died on the way to the hospital). The few survivors were able to jump out of the plane before it caught fire.
The crash occurred in southern India at the Mangalore International Airport. The Air India Flight IX-812 took off from Dubai early Saturday. The Air India jet touched down on the runway and was unable to stop before the runway ran out. Both the pilot and co-pilot had past experience landing at this airport.
Weather conditions were good with good visibility.
Local airport officials said that only the tail of the aircraft that didn’t catch fire. An investigation is already under way, but flight and data recorders had not yet been found. Smoke from the crash was hampering efforts to find survivors.
CNN reported that of the 160 passengers aboard, 6 were crew members and of the passengers: 32 were women, 105 were men, 19 were children and 4 were babies.
Scroll down to see a slideshow of photos and a map of the Air India plane crash.
UPDATE: An environmental group released a statement Saturday blaming the Mangalore Airport for the crash, click here to read about that story.
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