The Boeing 737, en route from Dubai, skidded off the runway in rain and broke in two after landing at Calicut airport, aviation officials said.
The flight was repatriating Indians stranded by the coronavirus crisis. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “pained by the plane accident”.
The rescue operation at the crash site has now been completed and survivors have been taken to hospitals in Calicut and Malappuram, according to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Dozens of people were injured, 15 of them seriously, a senior police officer said.
Air India Express said the two pilots were among the dead.
How the mishap happened?
The aircraft crashed at 19:40 local time (14:10 GMT) on Friday, as it attempted to land for a second time at Calicut International Airport. The first attempt was aborted by the pilots because of the heavy monsoon-season rainfall lashing Kerala.
India’s Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri, tweeted that the aircraft “overshot the runway in rainy conditions”, then plunged down a 35ft (10.6m) slope, before breaking in two.
He said a formal inquiry would be carried out by India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB).
Previous incidents
Plane crashes have happened before during the monsoon season, which lasts from June to September and wreaks havoc across south Asia every year.
In May 2010, 158 people died when an Air India Express flight overshot Mangalore airport runway and crashed.
A similar incident happened in July 2019 in Mangalore, prompting an inquiry, but causing no fatalities.
– BBC