AI Express says families of deceased pilots escorted to Kozhikode

Families of the deceased pilots of the Air India Express plane that crashed have been escorted to Kozhikode, the airline said on Saturday.

It said the number of fatalities in the plane crash at the Kozhikode airport in Kerala on Friday evening stands at 18.

The family of deceased pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe has been duly escorted from Mumbai to Kozhikode, Kerala, it said in a statement.

The family was escorted to the hospital where Sathe's mortal remains were kept for post-mortem, it added.

The airline said the family of deceased co-pilot Captain Akhilesh Kumar had already been escorted from Delhi to Kozhikode by its officials and the 'Angels of Air India', which is a special assistance team.

Pilot-in-command Sathe was an experienced Boeing 737-800 aircraft pilot and had earlier also flown Airbus A310 aircraft, the airline said.

"He had also won the Sword of Honour at the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad and was an accomplished fighter pilot before becoming a commercial pilot," it noted.

At 7.40 pm on Friday, the Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport in Kerala in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two, killing at least 18 people.