Air India Express Kozhikode Plane Crash: The aircraft broke into two big chunks after the accident
Screams of pain, blood soaked clothing, terrified children and the blare of ambulance sirens captured the distressing scene that unfolded at Kozhikode after the ill-fated aircraft from Dubai crash landed and fell into a valley with a deafening sound, killing at least 17 people on Friday.
Amid heavy rain, while rescue personnel, including the local civil police scrambled to pull out the injured men and women from the aircraft that broke into two big chunks, passengers were too stunned to even comprehend what had happened in a matter of moments.
Screams of people in pain in the initial chaotic moments were appalling.
Children, some as young as four and five years clung on to rescue personnel as shoes and baggage, strewn around, bore the tell-tale signs of the agonising moments endured by passengers.
The scene at the hospitals, where the injured were rushed, had similar images as health workers rushed to provide relief.
People living nearby pitched in on time to lend a helping hand to the grief struck passengers.
A local man said he rushed to the airport after hearing a "terrible thud" when the flight fell.
"Small kids were trapped under the seats and it was such a distressing sight," he said.
"When we reached there some were deplaned. Many of them were seriously injured. Legs were broken... My hands and shirt were soaked in the blood", he said.
Another man who participated in the rescue operations told a TV channel that "injured pilot of the aircraft was taken out from the cockpit after breaking it."
By the time ambulances started reaching the spot, the locals had already started shifting the injured passengers in cars to various hospitals in Kozhikode and Malappuram districts, he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)