Dubai-Kerala Air India Express crash: 127 receiving treatment at five hospitals in Kozhikode

Dubai: As many as 127 passengers of the Air India Express Dubai-Kozhikode flight that crashed on Friday night are under treatment for injuries, the Indian Consulate in Dubai said on Saturday morning.

In a tweet posted at 7:40am, the Indian Consulate maintained that 18 people had lost their lives including the pilot and co-pilot.

Some of the passengers being treated at five hospitals in Calicut are in critical condition, the mission said.

The consulate in which the injured passengers have been admitted are Kozhikode Medical College, Baby Memorial Hospital, Aster MIMS Hospital, Maithra Hospital, and Beach Hospital.

In the tweet, the mission also posted the contact numbers of the hospitals.

“Our prayers with the families of deceased and injured,” it added.

The Consulate is open from 8am on Saturday to assist all who want any assistance to travel to Kerala or any information related to the air crash.

“We are with all the families of the injured and the deceased and will do our best to assist them,” the mission had announced on Friday night.

At least 18 people including the pilot and co-pilot were dead when Air India Express flight IX1344, a COVID-19 special repatriation flight under India’s Vande Bharat Mission, skidded off and overshot the tabletop runway at the Calicut International Airport in the southern Indian state of Kerala on Friday. The flight carrying 184 passengers and six crew members plunged into a valley and broke into two pieces around 7.40pm.