It has been a tragic day in Kerala; First, 13 people were killed in heavy rains and landslides in the eastern hilly regions of the state, 20 kilometres from the tourist destination of Munnar, with over 50 people missing, believed to be buried under the debris. And before the state could recover from the landslide, tragedy came again with the news of an air crash in Kairpur near Kozhikode in the northern part of the state.
Sputnik caught up with a local rescue volunteer, who was among those who helped the injured passengers to the nearest hospital four kilometres away from the airport.
“The airport is at a height and there was heavy rain. According to passengers in the flight, who were shifted to nearby hospital, the flight took at least two rounds of the runway as the pilots could not see the runway properly. Finally, when it tried to land, the aircraft skidded off and crashed into a gorge 35 feet down,” said Surjeet, a local who was present near the airport and joined the relief operations.
“We brought as many passengers to the nearest hospital, which has not enough facilities. Later, all seriously injured passengers were shifted to other hospitals in Kozhikode city. Initially local people volunteered to extricate passengers from the aircraft and shifted them to hospital in their own private vehicles. Airport authorities and police came later,” he added.
“There were infants, children, aged passengers. One of the infants rescued and handed over to its relatives was two years old. As the news spread, relatives of passengers came and took those who had only minor injuries. Many of the injured were in serious condition – some had legs broken, or spinal injures, while many had head injuries. Since it was COVID-19 situation, there was shortage of ambulances to shift seriously injured passengers to bigger hospitals,” Surjit explained.
While most of the passengers have been rescued from the aircraft and moved to various hospitals, efforts are still being made to rescue two passengers trapped in the tail of the aircraft.