Will wait for crash enquiry before commenting: BJP

NEW DELHI - The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Saturday it will wait for the report of the official inquiry into the causes of the plane crash at Mangalore airport before making any comment on the accident.

“We will wait for the DGCA (Director General of Civil Aviation) inquiry into reasons for the accident,” BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudy told reporters here.

Rudy, a trained pilot and former civil aviation minister, said the party would not like to comment on the causes of the accident at a time of crisis.

Expressing the BJP’s condolences at the tragedy, Rudy said party president Nitin Gadkari, parliamentary party chairman L.K Advani, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley had expressed their sympathies with the bereaved families.

At least 159 people were killed Saturday when Air India Express flight 812 flying in from Dubai crashed while landing at Mangalore’s “table top” airport and erupted in flames when it overshot the runway and plunged down a cliff.