Survivors of past plane crashes recall events with horror and gratitude

Fifteen years after the tragic crash of Air India Express flight IX 812 in Mangaluru airport, which killed 158 people, a survivor of the accident, K Pradeep, still recalls the day with solemn reflection and quiet gratitude.

That aircraft overran the runway on May 22, 2010, and crashed.

2015 Mangaluru tragedy

Pradeep was returning to his hometown Mangaluru on the Air India Express flight from Dubai, where he was working as a technical supervisor at a private firm. He was going home to attend his brother's wedding, and was excited.

But the excitement turned to fear as the plane landed at Mangaluru airport, because he realised that something was wrong. The plane was moving too fast for a landing, and then the plane started shaking violently. There were screams from all directions, and then his seat turned upside down. He could not see anything, there was smoke everywhere, and it was very hot.

He somehow managed to get up and found an opening, since the plane had broken. He got out, and found himself in a jungle. A few others also managed to escape, but they could not save anyone else, because there was too much smoke. There was a sudden explosion, and the plane caught fire. Pradeep says he did not realise at the time how badly burnt he was.

He is grateful to the local people who took them to a hospital.

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"It was the charity work done by my parents and their blessings that saved me,” he told news agency PTI, recalling the horrific moment when the Boeing 737 aircraft failed to stop and plunged into a gorge.

Pradeep, now a civil contractor in the city, visits the crash memorial at Kulur every May 22. He lays flowers at the plaque, stands in silence for the lives lost, and offers prayers.

After paying tribute, he also visits temples to thank the divine for what he calls a miraculous escape.

Another survivor, Usman Farooq, who now works with an ambulance service, also believes his survival was due to divine intervention.

He remembers how the portion of the aircraft near the wing, where he was seated, broke apart just in time to allow his escape. Farooq said he owes his life to the Almighty and sees his work in emergency services as a way of giving back.

One more survivor, Joel D'Souza, has difficulty reliving the crash. He broke his leg and suffers from a slipped disc as a result of the crash. Even after 15 years, he cannot run like others or lift heavy objects. He suffers from anxiety and nightmares, and said he gets panic attacks every time he is on a plane and it starts landing.

Human error

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which investigated the crash attributed the cause primarily to human error. The inquiry found that the aircraft touched down approximately 5,200 feet down an 8,000-foot-long runway, leaving insufficient distance to bring the aircraft to a halt.

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Despite repeated warnings from the co-pilot and alerts from the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), the captain continued with an unstabilised approach. Investigations also revealed that the commander of the aircraft had been asleep during a portion of the flight and was likely experiencing “sleep inertia,” a state of cognitive impairment, at the time of landing.

Systemic failures

The Court of Inquiry led by Air Marshal BN Gokhale largely supported the DGCA’s conclusions, highlighting pilot error as the primary cause. However, it also pointed to systemic failures.

The report noted that the rigid structure housing the localiser antenna at the airport was not frangible, contrary to international civil aviation guidelines. This contributed to the aircraft breaking apart upon overshooting the runway.

The inquiry also mentioned that audits conducted by the DGCA in previous years, including one in 2007 and another shortly before the crash in 2010, had flagged several deficiencies in Air India Express’s training and safety oversight mechanisms. Unfortunately, corrective measures were not implemented in time.

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Emergency response efforts at the crash site were hindered by inadequate access routes and limited firefighting resources. Survivors and emergency responders later noted that these deficiencies delayed rescue operations and may have cost lives.

In the aftermath of the crash, the DGCA initiated safety audits of other critical airports across the country. The regulatory body also formed the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council to improve oversight.

Reforms were proposed to enhance runway safety, especially at tabletop airports like Mangaluru, and to reinforce crew training, especially on go-around procedures. Some of these measures have been implemented, but infrastructural gaps at many airports remain a concern.

2020 Kozhikode crash – horrendous memories

Ashique still finds it hard to come to terms with the horrendous memories he had on board the plane that crashed in Kerala's Kozhikode around five years ago.

The jerks, the sounds, the screams of children, and a call from a fellow-passenger from behind to pray to the Almighty are still part of his nightmares, said the Keralite man who had a narrow escape in 2020.

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The tragic plane crash in Ahmedabad, which killed 241 people on board a London-bound Air India flight on Thursday (June 12), brought the horrors of the Kozhikode flight accident back to the minds of Ashique and the other survivors.

"My mind has been deeply disturbed ever since I came to know about the plane crash in Ahmedabad. The TV visuals were really painful. It was like re-living our own experience which we had years ago," he told a TV channel.

Tabletop runway

If the Ahmedabad accident happened within seconds after the take-off from the airport, the Kozhikode plane accident occurred soon after the aeroplane had landed on the runway, he said.

The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people, including its six-member crew, overshot the tabletop runway during landing at the Kozhikode airport amid heavy rains on the evening of August 7, 2020.

The narrow-body B737 plane fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into pieces, killing 21 people, including both pilots.

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"The majority of the passengers onboard that ill-fated flight, including me, were already thoroughly disturbed because of the COVID situation. Many of the passengers were on their way back home after losing their jobs because of the pandemic," Ashique recalled.

He said they could not identify even fellow-travellers because of the masks and PPE kits.

Everybody was thinking about the quarantine after reaching home, and passengers didn't even dare to use the washroom on board the flight because of the fear of the disease, he said.

So, the relief of seeing the runway was beyond words, he said.

Second attempt

But, after the landing, the flight rose up again and hovered for some time, he said, adding that it again landed in the second attempt.

"Suddenly, a jerking sound was heard. Some children were seen falling from the laps of their mothers. The happenings in the next few seconds were something beyond our imagination," Ashique recalled.

Children were screaming, and someone from behind asked everyone to pray to God.

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"We understood something bad had happened. I hugged my brother, who was travelling along with me, tightly. I don't remember anything after that," he said.

The man said that when he opened his eyes, it was raining heavily.

‘Locals rushed to the rescue’

"Luckily, our plane didn't catch fire. The airport area was receiving heavy rains on that fatal day. Forgetting the COVID situation, local people rushed to our rescue and gave us first aid, brought us back to life," he added.

He said after news of the Ahmedabad tragedy happened, many of the then co-passengers texted messages in their common social media group and reminisced about those memories.

1993 Aurangabad crash

As the Air India aircraft crash in Ahmedabad shocked the country, a man from Maharashtra's Parbhani, who survived a similar accident 32 years ago, recalled how he cheated death. Vasant Shinde, a former municipal council president of Jintur in Parbhani district, told PTI that he survived the 1993 tragedy, in which 55 people lost their lives.

Shinde was on board the ill-fated Indian Airlines plane that took off from Chikalthana airport in Aurangabad district (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) on April 26, 1993.

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The landing gear of the Aurangabad-Mumbai flight 491, however, hit a truck on the road at the end of the runway as it was taking off and then flew into high-tension power lines before crash-landing in a field, breaking into three pieces and catching fire.

Of the 112 passengers on board, 55 died.

Shinde said, "Congress MLA Ramprasad Bordikar and I were going to Mumbai for a programme. We got tickets at the last minute and took seats next to the cockpit."

‘Not enough speed for take-off’

He said the aircraft did not gather the necessary speed for take-off, and landing gear in the rear dashed a truck outside the airport before flying into an 11 KV powerline, which fortunately had no supply.

"It was pitch dark in the aircraft. The pilot took the flight to an open field, where it broke off into three pieces," he said.

When the door to the aircraft opened, it was like a ray of hope, he said.

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"I jumped out without a second thought. I suffered minor injuries, but I was conscious," Shinde recalled.

Speaking to a news channel earlier, he said, "Bordikar and I had been offered seats in the rear, but we preferred to sit near the cockpit. We could escape, but those in the rear section were charred to death."

(With agency inputs)