Mangaluru & Karipur air crash survivors recount horrors of near death

Yet another tragedy: Kozhikode 2020

- POOJA NAIR @Kozhikode

THE rain had just begun to fall lightly that morning in May 2010 as Flight IX-812 descended towards Mangalore airport. For the 166 people on board, home was just minutes away. But within seconds, that hopeful descent turned into catastrophe -- a misjudged landing, a fuselage torn apart, fire, screams, and chaos.

Fifteen years have passed. For some, time has dulled the pain; for others, memories are etched as deep as the burning metal of that ill-fated aircraft. Survivors of the Mangaluru and Kozhikode air crashes carry not just scars on their bodies but grief in their hearts. These are not just disaster statistics. These are men and women who lived to tell stories of survival, pain and betrayal.

A morning that changed everything On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight IX-812 from Dubai overshot the tabletop runway at Mangaluru airport. It crashed into a valley and burst into flames. 158 people perished. Only eight survived. Uduma native Krishnan Koolikunnu, was one of them. Now 62, he runs a small grocery shop in his village in Kasaragod. "At that moment, I thought it was the end. I saw my children's faces flash before me," he says. "I felt something was off just before landing. The plane was too fast. Then came the screech, a sound like metal scraping over rocks. It all went dark." He remembers a small crack in the plane's body, his gateway to life. "I pulled off the seatbelt and crawled through that gap. Outside, it was forest and fog. I ran and I didn't even know what I was running from."