Friday announces the beginning of the weekend but the first Friday of August brought with it the trauma and suffering of a lifetime for the people of India. On 7 August 2020, Boeing 737, an Air India express plane, en route from Dubai skidded off the runway of Karipur International Airport due to weather conditions. The flight was working under the Vande Bharat Mission and consisted of people returning back home after being stuck in Dubai due to coronavirus.
The flight with 190 people slipped off the table top runway due to heavy rain and went down a 35-metre slope at 7:40p.m. The next 5 minutes followed a series of events. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which guards the country’s airports was the first one contacted. The CISF immediately alerted the airport’s fire and health department. Calls were made to the local police station and rescue operations were in full swing. In fact, a restricted number of locals residing near the area were allowed to help the officials in rescue operations considering the number of people involved in the crash. Out of the 190 passengers, 18 passengers including both the pilots died in the crash. The impact of the crash was so severe that the plane broke into two parts. Arun Kumar, the Director General of Civil Aviation told NDTV that the pilots of the aircraft were warned about the bad weather in the area, also about the tailwinds which however were within the permissible limits.
The victims of the crash were admitted to Kozhikode Medical College Hospital and were given the necessary treatment. Additionally, they were also tested for corona virus. Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan while visiting the hospital to offer his condolences announced that all the medical expenses of the injured people shall be borne by the government. Compensation of 10 lakhs has also been announced by the government for the families of the deceased. All the deceased have been identified and it came out that eight belonged to Kozhikode district, six to Malappuram district and two to Palakkad district.
Apart from the compensation announced by the government, some officials have drawn our attention to the fact that the airline company might also become liable to pay compensation up to Rs 1.19 crore per passenger in case of death or bodily injury. The charter of passenger rights notified by the Central Government provides that the compensation for air travellers is calculated based on the payment of damages of up to 1,13,100 Special Drawing Rights (SDR’s are units of account for the IMF, they represent a claim to currency) or 1.19 crore for international flights. The unfortunate event occurred on Friday and the value of 1SDR on that very day was equivalent to $1.41. As of now, Air India has announced compensation of Rs 10 lakh to the family of the deceased person (12 years old or above), 5 lakh for deceased passengers below the age of 12 years, 2 lakh to the passengers who were severely injured and 50000 for the other injured passengers in the crash. However, causes for this mishappening are still blur with some possibilities. Air India is yet to give its final statement with respect to the compensation amount.
Written by -Krati Bhansali
SOURCE: BBC and Times of India