Mangalore air crash: All bodies recovered

Mangalore, May 23: Air India (AI) on Sunday said that all the 158 bodies have been recovered from the crash site and 87 bodies have already been handed over to relatives.

"All the 158 bodies have been recovered from the crash site," said AI spokesperson Harpreet Singh De.

"We have deputed one person from our emergency management to assist the relatives at Mangalore," De added.

She also said that investigations by the DGCA and Air India's flight safety department were on and the Black Box of the crashed aircraft is yet to be recovered.

The Black Box is a plane's digital flight data recorder that helps in facilitating the investigation of an aircraft accident.

Earlier, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, who had arrived here to access the situation following the crash of the Air India Express Flight from Dubai to Mangalore, said the plane overshot the runway, and there was no defect in it.

"The two pilots had over 10,000 hours of flying experience. The pilots were experienced and familiar with the terrain," Patel told reporters.

"The runway visibility stood at six kilometers when the incident took place. The visibility was normal.

The ATC signal was also clear," he added.

The Air India Boeing 737-800, carrying 160 passengers and a crew of six, overshot a runway and crashed in flames near Mangalore in which 158 were killed. There were only eight survivors from the flight that came in from Dubai.

This is the first major plane crash in India since 2000.

ANI