Air India Plane Was Swaying Before it Crashed in Heavy Rain, Passenger Recounts

 Jan Wesner Childs

Published: August 8, 2020

The death toll from Friday's plane crash amid heavy rain in Southern Indian has risen to at least 18.

Passenger Renjith Panangad told The Associated Press that the plane was swaying violently before it landed.

“There was a big noise during the impact and people started screaming,” Panangad, a plumber who recently lost his job in Dubai, said.

Like all the other passengers on the plane, Panangad was returning home after being stranded abroad due to the coronavirus pandemic. Regular commercial flights into India have been suspended.

“A lot of passengers were bleeding,” Panangad, who spoke from his hospital bed, said. “I still can’t comprehend what happened. As I am trying to recall what happened, my body is shivering.”

The plane carrying 190 passengers and crew slid off the runway after landing.

Police said at least 18 people were killed and 123 injured, the AP reported. At least 15 of the injured were in critical condition.

The pilot and co-pilot were among the dead, the Hindustan Times reported.

The 2-year-old Boeing 737-800 flown by Air India Express had taken off from Dubai and was attempting to land in Kozhikode. The incident happened about 7:30 p.m. Friday local time.

Investigators recovered the plane's black box, key to eventually discovering what caused the plane to crash. Government officials have already said weather was a factor.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement that the plane landed in heavy rain and then continued "running to end of runway and fell down in the valley and broke down in two pieces," according to the Hindustan Times.

The airport where the plane crashed has what's known as a "tabletop runway," called that because it's on a hilltop with deep gorges on either side. Experts have long questioned the safety of landing at Kozhikode and several airlines stopped flying larger planes into the airport because of safety concerns, acccording to the Times of India.

Officials inspect the wreckage of an Air India Express jet at Calicut International Airport in Karipur, Kerala, on Aug. 8, 2020. Fierce rain and winds lashed a plane carrying 190 people before it crash-landed and tore in two at an airport in southern India, killing at least 18 people and injuring scores more.

Thunderstorms with embedded heavy rain built up around the airport Friday evening, weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Belles said. Rainfall rates of 1-3 inches per hour fell in Kerala state at the time.

The AP reported that Amitabh Kant, head of the government's planning commission, said weather was a factor.

“The incident happened because of heavy rains and poor visibility," he told NDTV. "This is truly devastating."

Mark Martin, a Dubai-based aviation consultant, told AP, “Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash.”

He called on the European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to help with the Indian government's investigation.

Earlier in the day, a landslide triggered by torrential rains about 125 miles south of the airport killed at least 15 people.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.