Dense black smoke billowed from the wreckage of the flaming Boeing 737-800 aircraft in a hilly area with thick grass and trees just outside Mangalore's Bajpe airport.
Firefighters sprayed water and foam on the plane - which was traveling from Dubai
- as others struggled to find survivors. An Associated Press photo showed two rescuers running up a hill carrying a young girl covered in foam to waiting medics. The child's fate was not immediately known.
The plane was carrying 160 passengers - all Indian - and six crew members, Air India official Anup Srivastava said. The British pilot and Indian co-pilot were killed.
Workers pulled scores of burned bodies from the blackened tangle of aircraft cables, twisted metal, charred trees and mud at the crash site. Many of the dead were strapped into their seats, their bodies burned beyond recognition.\
Relatives of the victims, who had come to the airport to meet them, stood near the wreckage weeping.
"This is a major calamity," V.S. Acharya, home minister for the state of Karnataka, told CNN-IBN.
Ummer Farook Mohammed, a survivor who suffered burns on his face and hands, said it felt like a tire burst after the plane landed.
"There was a loud bang, and the plane caught fire," he said.
"The plane shook with vibrations and split into two," G.K. Pradeep, another survivor, told CNN-IBN television. He jumped out of the aircraft with four others into a pit, he said.
The plane had a small fire at first, but then a large explosion set off a bigger blaze, he said.
By Saturday afternoon, rescuers had pulled 127 bodies from the wreckage, the airline said. Seven survivors had been rescued and were being treated in local hospitals, the airline said.
Air India runs cheap flights under the Air India Express banner to Dubai and other Middle Eastern destinations where millions of Indian expatriate workers are employed.
The crash was the deadliest in India since the November 1996 midair collision between a Saudi airliner and a Kazakh cargo plane near New Delhi that killed 349 people.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed condolences and promised compensation for the families of the victims. Boeing said it was sending a team to aid in the investigation.
The crash took place about 6 a.m. when the plane tried to land at Bajpe, about 19 miles (30 kilometers) outside of Mangalore, and overshot the runway, said Jitender Bhargava, another official with the financially struggling Indian national carrier.
Scores of villagers scrambled over the hilly terrain to reach the wreckage, and began aiding in the rescue operation. Pre-monsoon rains over the past two days caused low visibility in the area, officials said.
