Dubai: Four Keralites were among the
twelve Indians killed on board the Iranian Kish Airline which crashed and burst into flames just before landing at Sharjah airport.
At least 43 people were killed in the crash. Of the
three critically injured survivors, who have been admitted to hospital in Sharjah, two were Iranians and one was a Filipino.
The Indians from Kerala were Naseeb Mustafa, K S
Mohanan, Pookkottil Manoj, Abdul Salam. Others, whose
statewise breakup was not available, included Parshotam Lal, Jaganathan S, Kandasamy K, Parviz Nama, Shameem Parviz, Parviz Ahmed, Khan Faisal and James Mhraya.
The Dutch-built Fokker 50 of Kish Air, which had taken off from Iranian island of Kish with 46 passengers including a child and a crew of six, crashed at 12:30 pm IST yesterday in an isolated area between the emirates of Sharjah and Ajman just about five kilometres north of the Sharjah International
airport.
The black box of the plane has been recovered but the airport officials were quoted in reports as saying that they did not receive any distress message from the pilot.
The pilot apparently tried to divert the plane away
from residential areas or else the toll could have been
higher, eyewitnesses said.
Kish is a favourite destination for foreigners because the cheap and short flights, which are very basic in terms of facilities, carry passengers with visit visa out of the country and bring them back to fulfil a mandatory residence visa requirement.
