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India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singha has rejected the resignation submitted by Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Saturday evening taking moral responsibility for the Air India Express Flight crash in which 160 people were killed, said unconfirmed reports.
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At least 160 people were killed when an Air India Express passenger plane from Dubai crashed while landing at an airport in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, about 200 miles from Bangalore on Saturday morning at 06:05 am local time.
An Air India spokeswoman told TV channels that the Air India Express aircraft, which is the low-cost airline subsidiary of Air India, was carrying more than 160 passengers and six crew members.
Karnataka state chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa visited the crash site and expressed condolences to the bereaved familites. Eight passengers are believed to have survived the crash. Four out of 19 children survived the crash, said another report on NDTV channel. The names of seven survivors released so far are: Putturismail Abdulla, Joel Pratap DSouza, G.K. Pradeep, Krishnan Koolikkunnu, Mayankutty K.P, Ummer Farook Mohammed and Sabrina Nasrinhuq.
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Local TV channels showed the clippings of air crash and one survivor told CNN-IBN news channel that he noticed a left door wasopen and immediately jumped off the plane as it overshot the runway and caught fire. It shows that the mandatory landing message was not given to the passengers.
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A statement by Air India spokeswoman on TV channels said: "The accident occurred after the aircraft landed at Mangalore airport and overshot the runway... We are checking the details and Air India is currently confirming the identities of the casualties."
The airline operator has set up four helpline numbers for relatives and friends of the victims: 91-11-2565-6196, 91-11-2560-3101, 91-824-2220422 and 91-824-2220424.
Boeing Company, manufacturer of the crashed Boeing 737-800 aircraft, said a team will be sent to Mangalore to provide technical assistance to the investigation at the invitation of the Indian authorities. "Boeing wishes to express its profound condolences to the friends and family of those lost on Air India Express IX-892, as well as its wish for the recovery of those injured," said Jim Proulx, a spokesman for the company in a statement.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is also sending three investigators to assist Indian authorities. U.S. Ambassador to India, Timothy J. Roemer extended support in probing into the cause of accident to the Indian government and said: "I was saddened to hear this morning of the tragic crash of Air India Express flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore, and of the loss of so many. This is of course so much more difficult to bear knowing that so many children perished."
While one survivor criticised the air traffic maintenance at the airport on a TV channel, twitter messages were abound on Saturday suggesting some measures like shifting the airport and take corrective actions.
A twitter message by a teacher in Sharjah said, "Travelling by air india is always a nightmare...mostly it is delayed saying technical fault and then in flight you are always reciting dua (praying God) for safe landing."
Another twitter message by one Joshi from Dubai said: "AAI has to find out the reason of crash and study further to do something if the runway is not enough to land."
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