Human error theory on air disaster

India's civil aviation minister said yesterday that human error may be to blame for the crash of an Air India airliner in which 158 people died.

The minister. Praful Patel, told the CNN-IBN TV news channel that weather conditions and other factors at time the Boeing 737-800 reached its destination "looked absolutely normal for a regular touchdown and a safe landing.

"You can't rule out a human error factor," Mr Patel said.

Only an inquiry could establish what exactly went wrong as the aircraft overshot the hilltop runway and crashed and plunged over a cliff and into a ravine at dawn on Saturday on the outskirts of the southern Indian city of Mangalore, he said. Of the 166 passengers and crew aboard, only eight people survived the crash.

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Mr Patel said there was no rain in the area and visibility was good at the time of the plane's landing.

Investigators and aviation officials searched the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 strewn across a hillside to try to determine the cause of India's worst air disaster in more than a decade. They recovered the cockpit voice recorder.