24 May 2010

Data recorders sought at crash scene

9:02 am on 24 May 2010

Investigators at the site of an airliner crash in southern India are searching for the jet's data recorders to find out what caused the disaster in which 158 people died.

The Air India Express Boeing 737 overshot the hilltop runway at Mangalore and crashed into a valley on Saturday. Eight passengers survived.

Air India says all the bodies have been recovered but 12 are badly burned and are yet to be identified.

Two teams of investigators from the United States, including a team from Boeing, have been dispatched to help with the investigation.

All the passengers on the flight from Dubai were Indian nationals. Many were thought to have been migrant workers in the Emirate.

Air India Express is the low-cost arm of the national carrier, Air India.

The BBC reports the last major crash in India happened in the city of Patna in July 2000, killing at least 50 people.