Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) assistant sub-inspector (ASI) Ajeet Singh was one of the eye-witnesses of the Air India Express flight crash at Kozhikode airport on Friday night, in which 18 people lost their lives, and informed about the incident to the control room and other officials concerned.
Narrating the incident, Singh said that he was talking to a colleague when he saw the plane falling towards the parameter road.
"I went to the field at around 7:30 pm for the third round and reached the gate number 2, which is an emergency fire gate, where ASI Mangal Singh was on duty. I sought the beat book from him to sign. Then I was talking to him when I saw a flight of Air India Express was falling towards the parameter road," Singh said on Saturday.
He said that he immediately informed the control room, officials concerned, and rescue teams.
"Line members and fire teams came for the rescue. We immediately opened gate number 8. Around 25-30 volunteers and a JCB entered the premises and started the rescue operation by removing the debris, under which passengers were stuck," Singh said.
"The CISF personnel entered the crashed plane and rescued the people from inside took them to the ambulance, which came in from gate number 8 and transport them," he added.
Earlier, CISF Special Director-General MA Ganapathy said that as soon as the flight crash-landed in Kozhikode over 40 CISF personnel and Quick Response Team (QRT) reached the site and successfully evacuated the passengers thereby saving many lives.
According to Ganapathy, the incident took place at around 7:40 pm on Friday and the aircraft overshot the runway and fell off the tabletop, splitting into two.
The injured are admitted to hospitals in Malappuram and Kozhikode, as per Kerala government officials. The flight was carrying 190 passengers including 10 infants when it skidded while landing at Karipur airport in Kozhikode on Friday evening.
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