The horrific plane crash that killed 158 people in India was blamed yesterday on pilot error.
Indian aviation officials said that there was nothing wrong with the Boeing 737-800 on Friday, when it landed in cloudy conditions at Mangalore airport with 166 people — all Indian nationals — after a flight from Dubai.
The plane landed some 2,000 feet up the 8,000-foot runway and didn’t have time to stop before it veered off the tarmac and crashed into a ravine, the officials said.
The pilot did not send out a distress signal before landing at 6 a.m. local time, The Times of London reported.
Miraculously, eight people survived the wreck. One said that the plane barreled off the runway and struck an antenna.
“I heard a sound and saw smoke quickly fill the plane,” passenger Umar Farooq reportedly said. “A crack appeared on the plane’s body where I was seated. I immediately jumped out. As I fled from the aircraft, flames engulfed it.”
Kapil Kaul, chief executive of the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation, said that pilot error was “likely” because the aircraft appeared to have come down beyond the “landing threshold.”
However, some survivors reported hearing a loud bang, like a tire exploding, just as the 737 touched the ground.