Just talked to a friend at Mangalore with ix. confirmed no MELs.
He quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the aircraft made a pretty steep approach and touched down close to half way down the runway. They heard the thrust reversers and then a loud thud which was caused by the right wing hitting the Localiser at the end of runway. part of the wing fell there and the aircraft then fell over into the valley below. Then burst into flames.
Very sad incident and may God give strength to the bereaved families in this hour of distress.

PS: no precipitation at time of crash. Runway was dry.

Opening The Can
 

AI started aligning the proverbial Swiss cheese about 2 years back.
First they reduced the benefits for their staff and chased a lot of their experienced national pilots to the Gulf and elsewhere.
Then they started picking at the expat force.
Then they lowered the maintenance standards.
And of course nobody from management paid attention to the brooding and demotivation spreading like fire among employees, while in parliament the deputies kept bickering over the next bail-out package for the ailing National carrier!
So finally they managed to do the alignment job.
Question was not if, but when and how many would loose their lives!

:mad:

The Wiki information on the RW length is wrong. The exact length of the main RW is 8,038 '.

Survivor jumped out of gap in broken aircraft: relative

Survivor jumped out of gap in broken aircraft: relative

May 22nd, 2010 - 12:42 pm ICT by IANS -

Mangalore (Karnataka), May 22 (IANS) One of the survivors of the air crash, Umar Farooq, said he escaped by jumping out of from a gap when the plane broke immediately after shooting off the runway at the Mangalore airport.
“He told us that as soon as the aircraft started landing, the front wheel burst and the plane shot off the runway before catching fire. There was a crack in the aircraft. He jumped out of it and ran away,” Farooq’s relative told NDTV news channel.

“There were two-three people who also jumped out. But we don’t know if they survived. Umar Farooq received burn injuries on his hand and face,” said the relative.

Farooq also told his family that there was no pre-landing message from the crew and the passengers were not even asked to fasten their seat belts.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Swiss Cheese
 

Further obvious holes lined up:

Time of day (0630)-very tired pilots
Low vis
Drenched runway surface
Absence of runway-end safety features-converse in fact-lethal over-run
Mixed-nationality flight crew (Serb/Indian)--communication sub-optimal
Airport ATC poor standard-increases workload

India is a difficult aviation environment at the best of times. Accidents always likely.

was flying back from the gulf around this time....heard ix812 on mangalore control...were asking for a direct to iaf for dme arc approach...am not sure for what runway they had requested...and also heard winds were calm....cant find voml metar anywhere....

Photo resources
 

Most up-to-date photo resource for Mangalore accident is

mangalore - News, photos, topics, and quotes

They also have video aggregates.

There is also a photo of a child survivor on the Straits Times website

This is just the start of things to come in Indian aviation. The likes of 9W, KF are not far, as training standards are eroded to the point of embarassment.

What is not helping is the climate offered by the regulatory body (DGCA) which is run by a bunch of incompetant people that only have 'union' experience. Their only way to control aviation in India is by fear and corruption. Due to archaic regulatory processes, AIC's are issued with no thought. The people in control are tyrants who love their image and are way beyond their depths. SAFETY is no consideration because they do not know what it actualy means. Their own operation needs scrutiny before they can legislate. As long as they continue these sycophants will drive Indian aviation further into the ground.

Training and checking standards in the country have to change. Discipline is lacking, and must be addressed with education. Mitigation strategies have to be put in place NOW, before more lives are lost. Accountability has to be the order of the day. Technology can save us only so much....

<<made a pretty steep approach and touched down close to the middle marker>>

So it landed prior to the runway?

Can we please wait for the facts before this thread becomes another feeding ground for our b.s analysts.:ugh:

Some survey photos
 

Interesting survey photo of the airport here:
Photos: - Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

(Choose Satellite and zoom in on the following:)
World Aeronautical Database

6680740

Can you back this up with facts because this isn't my experience.

HD....in this case his reference of 'middle marker' is with regards to the middle of the runway.The 'middle marker' implying the 1,000 ft decrements marked and annunciated by single digits along the runway edges. The rest of his observations however seem quite accurate and reliable...

Was the Russian Capt a Trainer ? Was this a Command training flight ?

Except for the fact that the VOR is on a different hill about 1.5 NM away from the R24 threshold

"The aircraft is said to be 5 years old. It was manned by Captain Glusik, a Serbian National and co-piloted by Alhuwalia, an Indian National. The Captain had attempted to land the plane on the middle of the runway but overshot it by 300 meters. After this he tried to take off again but the left wing of the plane hit a pole and the plane went out of control. The plane landed one kilometer far from the runway after crashing into a village, caught fire and exploded."

From http://mangalorean.com/news.php?news...dcastid=181196

A couple of details I would like to get clarity on -

1. Which runway did the crew land on ? Runway 09/27 is quite short at 1615m in length, are we talking this one or the newly built much longer 04/22 (2,900m).

2. Any more info on the pilots, namely captain and FO total times and times on type. Age also. I know the captain had 13,000 hrs TT but I wonder how much of that was on the B738 ?

3. Slight side issue - but in relation to runway 09/27 at 1,615m in length does any one know if there are any aircraft limitations for using this runway ? Im thinking specifically about the A321. I would not fancy landing an A321 on that runway after a heavy rain shower esp given the well documented issues with stopping it on very rain soaked terrain.

The approach was made for R24 - the ILS approach
Let's just leave this for a while till their fates are ascertained
R09/27 is very rarely used these days - and if at all it us used only ATRs and smaller planes do so. Rest all use R06/24

I am a russian expat who worked for AIE from the very beginning.
As far as I know all "russians" have left long ago.
And the captains name doesn't sound "russian" to me at all.
There were many serbian pilots who joined AIE just before we left.