May 23, 2010 - Air India Express, Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangalore International Airport was involved in a crash at 6 AM Saturday, May 22nd.

The B737-800 aircraft accident occurred just after the aircraft landed at Mangalore in which Flight 812 overshot runway 24. There were 160 passengers and six crew members onboard. Of the passengers and crew 166 were killed and 8 hospitalized.

Air India had put into place a full Emergency Response Team referred to as the ‘Angels of Air India.’ A local Coordination Center had also been set up and Air India Flight Safety and DGCA teams had reached Mangalore.

The pilot, Captain Zlatko Glusicawith had more than 10,000 hours of flying experience, 3,75 of which were in the aircraft type, was on his landing approach to a challenging and poorly designed hilltop runway, with light pre-monsoon mist on the runway making it a greasy surface with 4 miles reported visibility.

It is believed that the pilot overshot the landing threshold and was not at his proper approach speed. A lost of runway surface needed under these conditions to stop (brake) the B737 from overshooting the runway, crashed into a concrete navigational aid called a localizer at the end of the runway. Pilot error is likely the cause.

Landing past the threshold may have been a result of a circular that was issued by the airline about two years ago to its pilots which states pilots should not touch down on the runway hard (hard landing) or exceed 1.65G. This rule was set up for passenger comfort, although the Boeing B737-800 could have withstood up to 2.5G landing.

A hard landing usually comes from a high rate of decent from final approach to landing. This meant that it is possible the crew on Flight 812 may have had to do a longer flare which would have brought them outside of the touchdown zone. Had the pilot exceeded 1.65G there is a good chance he would have been confronted by management. As a result many pilots will increase their flare before touch down to avoid a hard landing.