IX-812 Air Crash Victims Remembered on 8th Anniversary at Memorial Park in Kuloor
On May 22, 2018, the district administration paid tribute to those 158 souls at the Memorial Park at Kuloor. A minute of silence was observed for the departed souls.
Deputy Commissioner Sasikanth Senthil, DCP Crime and Traffic Uma Prashanth, ADC Vaishali and Air India officials paid floral tributes at the memorial park.
by Alfie D’Souza- Team Mangalorean
District Administration and Mangalore International Airport Administration/Officials and General Public Pay Tribute to 158 Victims who perished in 2010 Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangaluru Plane Crash on 22 May 2010.
Mangaluru: In one of the country’s worst aviation disaster, an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangaluru crashed while landing at the Mangalore Airport at 6:05 am on 22 May 2010. A Boeing 737-800, the aircraft, with 166 people on board, overshot the runway and crashed into the valley before bursting into flames. The crash killed 158 people and left eight survivors. Sources reveal that the pilot-in-command, Z Glucia was an experienced pilot with 10,000 hours of flying experience and had 19 landings at the Mangalore airport. Co-pilot S S Ahluwalia with 3000 hours of flying experience had as many as 66 landings at the same airport. According to sources, the pilots did not report any malfunction to the Airport Traffic Control (ATC), before landing at the Mangalore Airport. So what went wrong?
A total of 166 passengers including 135 adults, 19 children, four babies and six aircraft personnel were travelling by the ill-fated flight. The lucky eight passengers, including one woman, who miraculously survived the crash are: Mohammad Usman, Mohammad Umer Farooqi, Sabrina Haq, KP Mayankutty, G K Pradeep, Krishnan Kollikunnu, Abdulla Puttur Ismail and Joel Prathap D’Souza. Some jumped out of windows as the plane came apart, others scrambled out of the wreckage. Burnt, they raced away from the inferno through the thickly-wooded ravine. Locals helped. They gave them phones, took them to hospital. Eight years later, today, 22 May 2018 bring back memories of this deadliest air crash in the history of Mangaluru AirPort.
Since several bodies could not be identified as they were charred or mutilated beyond recognition had to be mass cremated near Thannirbhavi, a spot as you enter from Kulur Road to Thannirbhavi-where now Memorial Park has been built at a cost of nearly Rs 10 lakhs. The administration has set up the park at a site abutting the Phalguni river, where unidentified bodies of the crash have been buried. This morning, 22 May 2018, DC Sasikanth Senthil along with other District Administration, including Ms Vyshali M L-Addnl. Deputy Commissioner & Addnl. District Magistrate; Mohammed Nazeer- MCC Commissioner, Uma Prashanth- DCP- Traffic and Crime; M.R. Ravi, Chief Executive Officer of Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat; Abraham Koshi- Official Airport Director; C V Ravindran- Airport Engineer-Electrical; among many others, paid tributes to the air crash victims at the memorial park by placing wreaths on a platform, and showering flower petals on the memorial plaque.
