Air India Express crash: 38 injured passengers admitted to Aster MIMS hospital
Moopen says crash was ‘a disaster waiting to happen’ due to short runway
Dubai: Thirty eight injured passengers on board the Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode which crashed on Friday have been admitted to Aster MIMS — Calicut, Gulf News has learnt.
Three persons who succumbed to their injuries are Pilot Deepak Sathe, Co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar and Aima. The passengers died at Aster MIMS Calicut hospital where they were taken for treatment.
In an exclusive interview to Gulf News, Aster founder, Dr. Azad Moopen confirmed the news on Friday evening. “Currently we have 38 patients admitted in MIMS. Three have succumbed to their injuries. Three others are critically ill. There is an urgent need for O negative blood for patients.”
Dr. Moopen said: “We have mobilised everything for mass casualty. We have the full capability of dealing with an unfortunate crisis like this,” he said.
“We are so sorry that this happened,” Dr. Moopen said. “It was a disaster waiting to happen. For long we have been asking for the table top runway to be extended to 12,000 feet. It is currently 9,000 feet. We hope this will be done now.”
Scene on the ground
Farhan Yasin, CEO of patients at Aster MIMS Hospital — Calicut and Kannur, confirmed to Gulf News that they have received 36 patients and 10-15 more patients are in transit from Karipur Airport to the hospital in Calicut.
“Doctors are evaluating the condition of the other patients,” said Yasin, adding “Most of the passengers sustained burns, fractures and head injuries.”
Yasin added the hospital is following COVID-19 protocol, meaning emergency staff who rushed to the airport and medical personnel receiving the patient are wearing full PPE (personal protective equipment) when tending to the patients.
“The hospital has also designated a triage area to receive the plane crash survivors and we are capable to receive more patients,” Yasin told Gulf News.