Malappuram: The last message from the pilot of the ill-fated Air India Express flight from Dubai that crashed on Friday to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower at the Calicut International Airport was relayed about four minutes before the accident.
After the first attempt at landing failed, the pilot decided to land on the west side of the runway (Runway 10) and sought permission from the ATC Tower.
After receiving the permission, the message 'clear to land runway 10' reached the ATC tower from the cockpit at 7:36pm on Friday. The plane was then about 4 nautical miles from the airport.
The flight, IX-1334, skidded on the runway while making the second landing attempt and crashed at about 7:40pm. It fell into a valley about 35 feet below after overshooting the tabletop runway with 184 passengers, killing 18 people, including the two pilots. The flight broke into two due to the impact of the fall.
Locals rushed to the mishap site and evacuated most passengers before the rescue services arrived. All the passengers were removed from the aircraft in about one-and-a-half hours.