Air India Express B738 crash
 

Any news of the Air India Express B737-800 crash in Mangalore, India...?? Updates please...

A little more,
Plane overshoots runway in India, bursts into flames: reports

Having been there, the runway is built on what is essentially a ridge. An overrun is going to result of going off a cliff of, at least, 75 feet or more.

Not good.

Happened at 0630 LT. From what i've heard acft fell into a 150 ft valley. IMHO it is still too early for any speculations. Sad day for IX:{

According to NDTV there were 156 passengers and 6 crew members. There may be some survivors.

CNN is now reporting over 160 casualties:
Airline confirms casualties in Air India crash - CNN.com

Indian tv is reporting 6 passengers were pulled alive from wreckage by villagers and transferred to hospital. Wreckage spread over a distance of 3km, Plane came down at about 6am.

The control tower staff were interviewed on indian tv and report that crew did not report any issues, and did not request any assistance.

control tower staff member also described the airport as a table top airport..... run off the end and it's a long way down.

airport is closed, but crash site in inaccessable to airport emergency vehicles. 20 ambulances are attending the scene.

Although the interview with ATC did seem to be a reliable source of information, the rest i am afraid is subjective.
Indian minister stated 19 children on the manifest and it was raining heavily at the time of the landing.

Acft appears to have been operating IX 812, which had an STA of 0630.

Here's a link to the airport site (and satellite view) of IXE Airport:

Mangalore International Airport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm in Dubai at the moment and IX is a major operator here; many, if not most, pax would have been domestic/construction workers whose families rely on remittances from family members in Dubai.

Sadly, this accident brings to an end a very long period of exceptional growth in Indian aviation without fatal accidents.

table top airports...you have to be right on every time you fly, rain or shine to be in the groove when it counts.

First pictures
 

http://drop.ndtv.com/albums/NEWS/manaircrash/4.jpg

First Pics: Mangalore Air Tragedy

7 People Rescued So Far

Rescue Operations Hampered Due To Persistent Rain And Crash Spot Doesn't Allow Vehicular Movt.

News reports say, rejected landing.
Wheather visibility of 3000m in rain is a equivalent to 700m in monsoon rain at 130 knots. Wonder if the pilots had monsoon experience. Any ILS on the south westerly runway? :sad:

@fatfish

At Mangalore, R24 is equipped with an ILS while R06 has a VOR approach with an appx 10 degrees offset FAT

@ fatfish

The capt has been with the company for more than 2 years and yes he had operated in the monsoons previously. And also since IXE is considered a critical airfield, it requires special qualification [for BOTH crew members] before one can operate there.

Mangalore eye witness at crash site reports on twit' a survivor said a tyre exploded on landing and they tried to take off again.

7 survivors but infant later died in hospital which accounts for the 6/7 figures being reported.

Anyone got the METAR at the time of the accident?

Reported Visibility About 6 Km No Ppt. At Landing Time Apparently Aircraft Has Also Hit A Vor Installation At Landing After Normal Clearance Was Given By Atc

So far this year, even before this morning's tragedy, the number of fatalities (355) was well above the ten year average (266). (Source: Aviation Safety Network).

Now confirmed that the aircraft that crashed was VT-AXV, delivered Jan 2008:

JetPhotos.Net Photo » VT-AXV (CN: 36333) Air-India Express Boeing 737-8HG by Thomas Loh Y. H.

Crrew details Captain- Zed Gorcia ( an russian Expat )


First officer - S.S. Ahluwalia

Media reporting of a possible loss of control during go around ...

At IXE, we do a F40 landing [SoP]. At MLW, Vref 40 is 139 KIAS. Also AXV was fitted with the Short Field Performance package/kit.