Plane crash in south India -Manglore

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[url="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100522/ap_on_re_as/as_india_plane_crash"]India plane with 166 on board crashes; 8 survive[/url]

Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said the plane's pilot, a British citizen, had more than 10,000 hours of flying experience, including [color="#FF0000"]26 landings at Mangalore.[/color] The Indian co-pilot had more than 3,750 hours of experience and[color="#FF0000"] 66 landings at Mangalore[/color], he said.



External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said the Mangalore runway had a reputation for being difficult.



"Our worst fears have come true," he told the Press Trust of India.

Accidents of this type, known as "runway excursions," are fairly common, though the majority end without injury or damage.



The International Civil Aviation Organization and pilots' groups have urged airports worldwide to construct 300 meter (yard)-long safety extensions at the end of each runway for extra protection.



Older airports in congested neighborhoods with little room for extensions are advised to install soft ground layers — known as arrestor beds — to slow planes, much as escape ramps on highways can stop trucks when their brakes fail.



[color="#FF0000"]The 8,000-foot (2,430-meter) Mangalore runway had a short spillover area of about 300 feet (90 meters) with a bed of sand designed to halt or slow a plane that overshoots, Patel said.

"Obviously, the aircraft was at a higher speed," [/color]he said.

More than 32,000 landings had been made on the runway since it opened in 2006, officials said.