Souvenir hunters stole gold, vital info from crash site

It is now becoming amply clear that civil aviation and security authorities in Mangalore did not respond on a scale that matches global norms, especially in sealing off access to the spot where Air India flight IX-812 crashed.

People from nearby Kenjar village did an exemplary job by taking the lead in rescue operations. But there were disaster tourists too.

Eyewitnesses told DNA that some people were collecting souvenirs of all sorts — twisted and mangled pieces of aircraft, charred pieces of baggage, passenger accessories, watches, jewellery etc.

After all it was a flight from Dubai, the land of gold dust.

A security staff at the Mangalore Airport said on condition of anonymity that little thought was paid to cordoning off the accident spot.

It took more than 36 hours for Mangalore airport authorities to cordon off the crash site. The delay might have made the job of investigators very difficult. They have not succeeded in locating the vital digital flight data recorder. Nor have they found the black box.

Police, fire services personnel, corporation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation officials will carry out a combing operation on Tuesday to look for the black box.

Where’s the nose, belly?
In any aircraft mishap the plane’s belly and nose are prominently visible. But in case of IX-812, only the tail is visible. An official pointed at a twisted heap of metal and speculated that it could be the belly.

The nose of the aircraft could have been smashed beyond recognition. It had hit the stone and concrete perimeter wall. Since it had fallen from a great height, most of its mangled nose had gone under the ground.