2 India Airliners Crash in Fog, Rain; 164 Die

AHMADABAD, India — An aging Indian Airlines Boeing 737 trying to land in thick fog crashed and exploded today, killing 130 people, officials said. About an hour later, a plane leased from Indian Airlines slammed into a hill during heavy rain, and all 34 people aboard were killed on the worst day of India’s aviation history.

Five survivors were pulled from the burning wreckage of the 737 after it hit a tree and a power line near Ahmadabad airport, 500 miles southwest of New Delhi. The 18-year-old twin-engine jet was carrying 129 passengers and a six-member crew from Bombay to Ahmadabad.

An airport police inspector said the pilot made more than one landing attempt and lost contact with the control tower about a minute before crashing at 7:40 a.m.

The owner of a field where the plane crashed said the plane wobbled before it hit the tree and power line. It exploded about a mile from the runway.

About an hour later and 1,250 miles away, a Fokker Friendship propeller plane flying from Silchar to Guwahati in Assam state slammed into a 1,400-foot hill during torrential rains, a local official said.

The plane, leased to Vayudoot by Indian Airlines, lost contact with Guwahati control tower at 8:53 a.m., said C. Das, deputy commissioner of Guwahati district. He said it crashed two minutes later, about five miles from the airport.

Shortly before the plane lost contact, he said, the pilot reported visibility was zero.

Indian Airlines, the domestic carrier, has come under criticism recently for its management and maintenance record and frequent delays. Today’s 737 crash was the 16th by an Indian Airlines carrier in the last 25 years.