At least 60 people are feared dead after an Air India Express aircraft from Dubai, carrying 173 passengers, overshot the runaway while landing at the Mangalore airport Saturday morning.
The incident happened near a valley 10 kms from the airport, Karnataka Home Minister V S Acharya said. The aircraft was on fire, he said.
Ambulances and fire tenders are on the spot. The flight IX-892, operated by a Boeing 737-800, had 163 passengers, four infants and six crew members on board.
Aviation sources said the aircraft overshot the runway, hit the fence and went beyond the boundary wall of the airport. Aviation sources termed it an 'accident' instead of 'incident', they said. In aviation parlance an accident denotes causalities. AI has opened helpline centre at Delhi Airport and the two numbers are 011-2565-6196 and 011-2560-3101.
DGCA Director-General S N A Zaidi told PTI, "we have received only preliminary reports regarding the accident. But we are awaiting for the details including the number of passengers."
