In aviation, disasters are bitter reminders of the thin filament of human choice-making, machinery excellence, and exposure of flying. It was on that deadly May 22, 2010, that a Boeing 737-800 Air India Express Flight 812 passenger plane crashed savagely during landing in Mangalore, India. What happened that day would be a ghosted page in aviation history.
A Fateful Arrival
The arrival of the flight in Dubai and departure from Mangalore was a promise of union, new beginnings, or reunion for the 160 passengers and six crew of the flight. But the moment the Boeing 737-800 landed on the Mangalore runway, a curious chain of events began to unfold.An Unsettled Approach
In a disastrous sequence of events, the captain persisted with an unstabilized landing despite three independent "go-around" alerts from the first officer. It was a question of life and death and set the flight on a course from where it never recovered. Even when the plane's wheels touched the runway, its course veered off one of safety.The Boeing 737-800 slid off the end of the runway, crashing downhill in a deadly plunge. The aircraft was engulfed by flames in a fire that destroyed the plane. There were 152 passengers and all of the members of the flight crew killed in the accident, for a total of 158 deaths. Eight lives were the sole survivors of the crash.
A Nation in Mourning
The impact of the crash of Air India Express Flight 812 was not limited to the city boundaries of Mangalore. Friends, family members, and relatives mourned the loss of the loved ones, whose lives were extinguished in a way that could never be replaced. The incident also left its mark in history: it was the first Air India Express crash that turned fatal, a stark reminder of the too often capricious nature of air travel.An Immediate Lesson
The deadly crash of Flight 812 triggered an introspection exercise of the aviation community. This reinforced the supreme significance of adherence to stabilized approach procedures under which pilots were required to execute a "go-around" should conditions divert from safety guidelines. It also placed squarely in focus the all-pervasive need for incessant training and strict compliance with safety protocols that might have averted this tragedy.Remembering the Dead
Revisiting that day, we remember not just the statistics—160 passengers, six crew—but the lives, the stories, the hopes that were lost. Their memory is a chilling reminder of the responsibility born of custodianship of the air: to safeguard the safety and the welfare of every individual who entrusts his life into the heavens' care.While the crash of Air India Express Flight 812 is a horrific page from the history of flight, it is also a provocation, a goad to safety protocols to be even more rigorous and to an awareness of the lives that take off into the air in the balance with each flight. As we mourn the loss of those who have died, may their memory ignite an era of aviation that is alert, accountable, and firmly dedicated to never again having tragedy sully the skies.