Mangalore, India, May 25, 2010 / 01:21 am
Bishop of Karwar Derek Fernandes has expressed grief and sorrow at the loss of “precious lives” in the airplane crash at Mangalore International Airport in India.
At Sunday Mass he conveyed his deepest condolences and sympathies to the bereaved families and wished a fast recovery to the injured. During the Mass he offered prayers along with the faithful of the diocese for the souls of the departed, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India said.
On Saturday morning, 158 people were killed when the Air India Express Boeing 737-800 crashed on a flight from Dubai to Mangalore, a southwestern port city. According to Agence France Presse, the plane veered off the runway and burst into flames.
Eight survived the crash, India’s first major air disaster since 2000.
Crash investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder but are still seeking the flight data recorder. Mangalore police commissioner Semant Kumar Singh said that 22 bodies had yet to be identified.