When people ask did anyone survive the Air India crash, they usually aren't talking about a single event. Air India has a long, storied, and sometimes heartbreaking history spanning decades. Because the airline has been the national carrier for so long, its name is attached to some of the most infamous moments in aviation. If you’re looking for a miracle story where everyone walked away, the answer is often "no," but the details are a lot more complex than a simple yes or no.
Take the 1985 bombing of Flight 182. That's the one most people think of first. It was a Boeing 747 named Kanishka. It blew up over the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland. Sadly, in that specific Air India crash, nobody survived. All 329 people on board perished. It remains the deadliest act of aviation terrorism in Canadian history and was the deadliest bombing involving an aircraft until the Lockerbie disaster.
But then you look at other incidents.
Aviation is weirdly specific. A "crash" can be a controlled flight into terrain, a mid-air explosion, or a runway overshoot. The survival rates change drastically depending on what actually happened in the cockpit and the skies. To really answer if anyone survived, we have to look at the three biggest disasters that define the airline’s safety record.
The horror of Air India Express Flight 812 in Mangalore
This one is tough to talk about. It happened in May 2010. The flight was coming in from Dubai to Mangalore. Now, Mangalore has what they call a "tabletop runway." Basically, the runway is on top of a hill with steep drops at the end. If you overshot, you weren't just hitting a fence; you were falling off a cliff.
The pilot, Captain Zlatko Glusica, ignored warnings from his co-pilot to "go around." The plane landed too far down the runway. It crashed through the sand-filled arrestor bed, smashed through the perimeter fence, and plunged into a deep gorge.
Did anyone survive this Air India crash? Yes. Surprisingly, eight people lived.
There were 166 people on board. 158 died. The survivors literally jumped out of the plane as it broke apart and caught fire in the ravine. One survivor, Pradeep Kotian, later described how he saw the plane split and just ran for his life before the explosions started. It’s a miracle anyone got out of that tangle of smoking metal. It shows that even in a catastrophic hull loss, human resilience and a bit of luck can lead to survivors.
Why tabletop runways are so dangerous
Most airports have a lot of "runway safety area" or RSA. If a pilot messes up the landing, there’s a flat grassy patch to slow down. At Mangalore or Kozhikode, there is zero margin for error. You’re landing on a plateau. If the wheels don't touch down exactly where they are supposed to, you're heading for a vertical drop.
📖 Related: Typhoon Tip and the Largest Hurricane on Record: Why Size Actually Matters
The 1966 "Princess Anne" crash on Mont Blanc
This is a weird, haunting piece of history. In January 1966, Air India Flight 101 was flying from Bombay to London. It hit Mont Blanc in the French Alps. This was a Boeing 707. Everyone on board—117 people—died instantly.
What makes this one famous (and tragic) is that it happened almost exactly where another Air India plane, the Malabar Princess, crashed in 1950.
In the 1966 crash, there were no survivors. One of the passengers was Homi J. Bhabha, the father of India's nuclear program. His death sparked decades of conspiracy theories. People wondered if it was sabotage to slow down India’s nuclear ambitions. Officially, though, it was a pilot error regarding the aircraft's position relative to the mountain peaks.
Even decades later, the glacier is still spitting out debris. Hikers occasionally find newspapers from 1966, engine parts, and even bags of jewels. In 2013, a climber found a box of emeralds, rubies, and sapphires valued at over $300,000 that belonged to a passenger on that flight.
The Kozhikode crash of 2020: A different outcome
More recently, we had the Air India Express Flight 1344 disaster. This happened during the height of the pandemic in August 2020. It was a repatriation flight bringing Indians home from Dubai.
Similar to Mangalore, this was a tabletop runway at Kozhikode (Calicut). It was raining heavily. The plane skidded off the end of the runway and fell 30 feet into a valley, splitting in two.
- Total passengers and crew: 190
- Fatalities: 21
- Survivors: 169
This is a case where the answer to did anyone survive the Air India crash is a resounding "most of them." Unlike the Mangalore crash, the plane did not catch fire. That is the only reason the death toll wasn't 100%. If the fuel tanks had ignited, it would have been a repeat of 2010. The pilots, Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and Co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar, both died, but their actions in the final seconds are often credited with saving the majority of the passengers.
Sathe was a former Indian Air Force test pilot. He reportedly turned off the engines before impact to prevent a fire. That’s the kind of split-second decision-making that separates a tragedy from a total massacre.
👉 See also: Melissa Calhoun Satellite High Teacher Dismissal: What Really Happened
What about the Air India bombing (Flight 182)?
We have to touch on this because it’s the most searched-for event regarding Air India's safety history. On June 23, 1985, a bomb went off in the cargo hold while the plane was at 31,000 feet.
At that altitude, the structural integrity of a 747 is under immense pressure. The explosion caused what’s called "explosive decompression." The tail section likely broke off first. The rest of the plane disintegrated in the air.
Did anyone survive? No.
There were 307 passengers and 22 crew members. There were many children on board going to visit grandparents in India for the summer. It was an absolute tragedy with zero survivors. Investigators eventually traced the bomb to Sikh militants, though only one person, Inderjit Singh Reyat, was ever convicted of involvement in the bombing itself.
Understanding the "Survival" factor
When you look at aviation data, survival is usually down to three things: fire, impact angle, and rescue time.
In the 1978 Air India Flight 855 crash (which fell into the Arabian Sea just after takeoff from Mumbai), there were no survivors. The plane did a "bank" (it tilted) because of a malfunctioning instrument. The pilot got disoriented and flew the 747 straight into the water at high speed. When a plane hits water at 300+ knots, it’s like hitting concrete. The plane shattered.
Compare that to the 2020 Kozhikode crash. The plane was traveling much slower. It "fell" rather than "dived." Because it stayed in two large pieces and didn't burn, the survival rate was over 85%.
The role of the "Black Box"
In every single one of these cases, the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) and the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) told the story. In Mangalore, the CVR recorded the sound of the co-pilot screaming "Go around, Captain!" In the 1978 Mumbai crash, it revealed the confusion over the "horizon" indicator. These boxes don't save lives during the crash, but they are the reason why flying is safer now.
✨ Don't miss: Wisconsin Judicial Elections 2025: Why This Race Broke Every Record
Modern Air India pilots undergo much more rigorous training for tabletop runways because of the lessons learned from the 158 people who didn't survive in 2010.
Real-world safety: Is Air India safe now?
A lot of people ask about survivors because they are scared to fly. It's a natural reaction. But honestly, Air India's safety record today is vastly different from the 60s or 80s.
Since the airline was taken over by the Tata Group, there has been a massive influx of cash, new planes, and stricter Western-style safety protocols. The "old" Air India had a reputation for bureaucracy and aging equipment. The "new" Air India is buying hundreds of Airbus and Boeing jets with the latest automated safety features.
If you are flying today, your chances of being in a crash—let alone one with no survivors—are statistically infinitesimal. You are more likely to get hurt driving to the airport than on the actual flight.
Summary of survival in major Air India incidents
| Flight | Year | Survivors? | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flight 245 | 1950 | No | Crashed into Mont Blanc. |
| Flight 101 | 1966 | No | Hit the same mountain as the 1950 crash. |
| Flight 855 | 1978 | No | Pilot disorientation; crashed into the sea. |
| Flight 182 | 1985 | No | Terrorist bombing over the Atlantic. |
| Flight 812 | 2010 | Yes (8 survived) | Tabletop runway overshoot in Mangalore. |
| Flight 1344 | 2020 | Yes (169 survived) | Tabletop runway overshoot in Kozhikode. |
Actionable steps for nervous flyers
If the history of these crashes makes you uneasy about your next trip, there are a few practical things you can do to feel more in control.
First, watch the safety briefing. It sounds cliché, but in the Kozhikode and Mangalore crashes, the survivors were people who knew where the exits were and moved fast. You have about 90 seconds to get out of a plane before fire becomes the primary killer.
Second, keep your seatbelt fastened even when the sign is off. A lot of "incidents" aren't full crashes; they are severe turbulence. People who aren't buckled in are the ones who get hurt.
Third, understand the airport. If you are flying into a tabletop runway like Mangalore, Lengpui, or Kozhikode, realize that these are "special category" airfields. Pilots require extra certification to land there. The industry knows they are tricky, and they don't put rookies in the captain's seat for those routes.
Lastly, check the aircraft age. You can use sites like FlightRadar24 to see the registration of your plane. Newer planes have better "crashworthiness." They are designed with seats that can handle more G-force and materials that are less toxic when they burn. Air India is currently phasing out almost all of its older, "sketchy" aircraft in favor of brand-new A350s and 787 Dreamliners.
The story of Air India is one of immense tragedy but also of learning. While many didn't survive the famous crashes of the past, the survivors of the more recent ones have provided the data needed to make sure these mistakes don't happen again.