Air India Express Flight 812

- Air India Express Flight 812 - 

On 22 May 2010, a Boeing 737-800 passenger jet operating Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore, India, crashed on landing at Mangalore. The captain had continued an unstabilized approach, despite three calls from the First Officer to "go around", resulting in the aircraft overshooting the runway, falling down a hillside and bursting into flames. Of the 160 passengers and six crew members on board, 158 were killed (all crew members and 152 passengers) and only eight survived.

With its 158 fatalities, Flight 812 is the second-deadliest accident involving the Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft (surpassed by Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 10 years later with 176 deaths), was the deadliest accident involving all variants of Boeing 737 until Lion Air Flight 610 crashed in October 2018 with 189 fatalities, and is the third-deadliest aviation disaster in India, after the 1996 Charkhi Dadri mid-air collision and the 1978 crash of Air India Flight 855.


This was the first fatal accident involving Air India Express.

Aircraft and Crew

The accident involved a Boeing 737-8NG(SFP), one of the few 737s with Short Field Performance package to use for landing in airports with short runways, with the aircraft registration VT–AXV and manufacturer's serial number 36333, line number 2481. The aircraft first flew on 20 December 2007 with the Boeing test registration N1787B and was delivered a month later. The crew consisted of Captain Zlatko Glušica, First Officer Harbinder Singh Ahluwalia and four flight attendants. Glušica, aged 55, was a former employee of Jat Airways of Serbia, a British and Serbian national with over 10,000 hours of flying and over 7,500 hours of command experience (including 2,440 hours on the Boeing 737), and Ahluwalia, aged 40, was a former employee of Jet Airways who joined Air India Express in 2009 with 3,620 flight hours with 3,319 hours on the Boeing 737; both pilots were based in Mangalore.

Flight

The flight departed Dubai International Airport at 01:06 GST (21:06 UTC). It crashed upon landing at Mangalore International Airport at 06:05 IST (00:35 UTC). Situated in a hilly area, the airport is one of seven Indian airports designated as a "critical airfield" by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). DGCA rules at critical airfields prohibit "supervised take offs and landings" i.e. only the captain (not the first officer) may pilot an aircraft during take-off and landing. Both pilots had previous experience with this airport; captain Glušica had landed at Mangalore 16 times, while first officer Ahluwalia had flown to the airport 66 times. The airport is one of three airports in India having table top runways (the others being Kozhikode and Lengpui) that require heightened awareness and a very precise landing approach.

Crash

After touching down on the 8,033-foot (2,448 m) runway 24, the plane overran and crashed down the hill at its far end. The final conversations between Air traffic control (ATC) and the pilot prior to the landing showed no indication of distress.

The then-Civil Aviation Minister, Praful Patel, said that the aircraft was following an Instrument landing system (ILS) approach for landing on the newer, longer runway, which was commissioned in 2006. The pilot reported to ATC that it was 'established' on an ILS approach about 4.3 miles (6.9 km) from touchdown; landing clearance was then given at 2,000 feet (610 m) from touchdown. The aircraft concluded its ILS approach on runway 24, touching down 5,200 feet (1,600 m) from the start of the runway, leaving 2,800 feet (850 m) in which to stop. It overran the runway and ploughed through a 90-metre (300 ft) sand arrestor bed, which did not stop it. As the aircraft passed the arrestor bed, its starboard wing collided with the concrete socket of the ILS localiser antenna; it finally plunged over the edge of the table-top about 790 feet (240 m) beyond the end of the runway and down the steep hillside, coming to a stop 660 to 980 feet (200 to 300 m) past the top of the slop