As many as 158 persons were killed when an Air India Express Boeing plane from Dubai with 166 passengers and crew on board overshot the touchdown point during landing at the Bajpe airport here, crashed down a cliff and burst into flames.

Eight persons miraculously survived one of the country's worst air crashes.

Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told reporters four persons suffered minor injuries while three sustained major injuries. One person escaped unhurt, he said.

* Mangalore Plane Crash: Full Coverage
    
The state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800, which was inducted on January 15, 2008 and with Serbian expatriate Capt Zlatko Glusica in command, had 160 passengers and a six-member crew on board the budget carrier.

The 160 passengers on board the ill fated aircraft comprised 105 men,32 women, 19 children and four infants.

Glusica(53) had 10,000 hours of flying experience and had made 16 previous landings at Bajpe airport while the co-pilot  H S Ahluwalia had 3,650 hours of experience in the cockpit.

The two pilots last flew into Mangalore on May 17, an official said. Two air hostesses were among the four-member cabin crew.

Police said 130 charred bodies have been recovered nearly nine hours after the crash which occurred at 6.30 AM. A majority of the victims were Keralites.

An official said the wheels of the aircraft missed the touchdown area on Runway 24.

Watch:
* In Pics: Mangalore Air Tragedy
* Video: Rescue operation on at crash site

The ATC gave the pilots clearance for landing when the aircraft was about four miles from touchdown, an Airport Authority of India official said.

The wind was calm, visibility at a comfortable six km and it was not raining at the time of the incident, the official said.

The pilots reported no problem as they prepared to land at Mangalore in the small hours of the morning, the official said. There were reports of a small drizzle at the time of the crash.

The plane broke and smoke billowed from the main fuselage. According to   preliminary reports, the aircraft exploded after it caught fire. The plane was almost completely burnt with only its tail visible.

Mangalore airport which is in a hilly area, about 30 km from the city, was shut down immediately after the mishap but reopened after about eight hours.

One of the survivors Umar Farooq said the aircraft experienced turbulence. One eyewitness said a tyre of the ill-fated plane had burst on landing.

Search was intensified for the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), also known as the black box which could give vital clues to the cause of the  crash.
   
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