At least 16 dead in plane crash in southwestern India

At least 16 people were killed and dozens injured when an Air India Express passenger plane repatriating Indians stranded by the COVID-19 pandemic overshot the runway in heavy rain near the southern city of Calicut on Friday, officials said.

The Boeing-737 flight from Dubai was flying home Indians stranded overseas as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. There were 190 passengers and crew on board, including 10 infants, the civil aviation ministry said in a statement.

Television footage showed rescue workers moving around the wreckage in pouring rain. The aircraft lay split into at least two chunks after the plane's fuselage sheared apart as it fell into a valley nine metres below, authorities said.

"Unfortunately, 16 people have lost their lives. I offer my condolences to their next of kin and pray for speedy recovery of the injured," Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said in a tweet.

Friday's crash is the worst passenger aircraft accident in the country since 2010, when an Air India Express flight, also from Dubai, overshot the runway and slid down a hill while landing in the southern Indian city of Mangalore, killing 158 people.

Both Mangalore and Calicut have table-top runways that are located at an altitude and have steep drops at one or both ends of the runway.

Calicut is in the southern state of Kerala, home to a large number of Indians working in the Middle East.

Media reports suggested the plane skidded off a runway, crashing nose-first into the ground.

Puri said rescue operations had been completed and all passengers had been removed from the aircraft. Police said earlier four people were stuck in the wreckage.

The Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement there was no fire on board.

Repatriation flight amid pandemic

India, which shut down all air travel in late March to try to contain the novel coronavirus, has restarted limited international air travel.

Air India Express AXB1344 was a government-operated repatriation flight for Indians previously unable to return home because of the travel restrictions.

TV visuals showed the aircraft's nose smashed into a brick wall, with much of the middle of the plane pulverized.

Local TV news channels showed passengers, some of them lying motionless on stretchers, brought into a hospital surrounded by health workers wearing masks because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Modi pledges assistance from New Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences and said his government was in contact with state officials in Kerala and would offer any assistance required.

Over the last two decades, aviation deaths around the world have been falling. As recently as 2005, there were 1,015 deaths aboard commercial passenger flights worldwide, according to statistics the Aviation Safety Network said.

The year 2017 saw no major commercial incidents.

Within the last two years, there have now been three deadly crashes involving Boeing aircraft, following incidents near Indonesia and in Ethiopia that saw its Max 737 fleet grounded.