ROSHIN GEORGE
Following the tragic accident involving an Air India Express repatriation flight from Dubai to Kozhikode at 7.45 pm local time on August 7, the Indian Consulate in Dubai has offered assistance. It tweeted: “Consulate will be open on August 8 at 8am to assist all who want any assistance to travel to Kerala or any information related to the air crash incident. We are with all the families of injured and deceased and will do our best to assist them.”
“We are very sorry about the accident involving our citizens flying home on a repatriation flight,” said Consul General of India in Dubai Dr. Aman Puri. “Our deepest condolences to the families of those who have been injured. We are trying to assess the current situation about passengers and the pilots and the numbers of those who are injured in this tragic incident. We can confirm that the flight took off at 1:45pm and it had 128 male passengers, 46 female passengers and 10 infants,” he said.
Puri said all the four helplines of the consulate will be available 24 hours to answer any queries and provide information to the family members of the passengers.
Air India Express issued a statement after the accident: “We regret that there has been an incident regarding our aircraft VT GHK, operating IX 1344 DXB CCJ. Due to crash landing of the flight, it may affect the network but Vande Bharat Mission continues.”
Some of the passengers on the flight were those on a visit visa trying to exit the UAE before the August 11 deadline.
The number to call in Sharjah for updates (set up by Air India Express): 00971 6 5970303.
The numbers to call in Dubai (set up by Indian Consulate): 056 546 3903, 0543090572, 0543090572, 0543090575; (set up by Air india Express) 0097142079444
A source at Kozhikode airport told this correspondent cross winds and heavy rains had made landing difficult and after touching down, the aircraft overshot the runway. The pilot cut off the engine so the aircraft did not catch fire, the ATC source informed. She said pilot Vasant Sathe was a very professional captain and a perfectionist. The wife of the co-pilot, who also died in the crash, is carrying. The cabin crew are safe, though two of them are injured.
