Description

On 22 May 2010, a Boeing 737-800 being operated by Air India Express on a scheduled passenger flight from Dubai to Mangalore made an unstable approach to runway 24 at destination in day VMC and continued to a deep landing before overrunning the end of the runway at speed and falling into a ravine where the aircraft was destroyed by the impact and subsequent fire and 158 of the 166 occupants were killed and of the remaining eight, seven were seriously injured and one suffered only minor injuries.

Investigation

A special Court of Inquiry was established by the Indian Ministry of Civil Aviation to oversee the conduct of the Investigation of the accident and prepare a Report on it. Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) data were successfully recovered for use in the Investigation.

It was noted that both the Captain and First Officer had substantial experience in the aircraft type as Air India Express pilots. The Captain, an expatriate contract pilot, was automatically designated as PF for the landing in accordance with the ‘special qualification’ requirement of the Operator because Mangalore was one of three ‘tabletop’ airports in India from where scheduled flights operate and was therefore on the Operator’s ‘Critical Airfield’ List.