Survivors of an Air India express plane crash say the jetliner swayed violently as it approached a hilltop runway soaked by monsoon rain.

The dead included both pilots of the Air India Express flight, the airline said in a statement, adding that the four cabin crew were safe.

In a telephone interview from his hospital bed, Renjith Panangad, a plumber who was returning home for the first time in three years after losing his job at a construction company in Dubai, said the plane swayed before the crash and everything went dark.

He said the pilot made a regular announcement before landing, and moments after the plane hit the runway, it nosedived.

Air India Express said its teams also reached Calicut to support and assist families of the victims.

A similar tragedy was narrowly avoided at the same airport a year ago, when an Air India Express flight suffered a tail strike upon landing.

Puri said in a statement that the flight "overshot the runway in rainy conditions and went down" the slope, breaking into two pieces upon impact.

The Press Trust of India news agency reported that the country's aviation regulator had sought an explanation from the director of the Kozhikode airport in 2019 on finding "various critical safety lapses," which included cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits.

Dubai-based aviation consultant Mark Martin said annual monsoon conditions appeared to be a factor, though it was too early to be certain of the cause.

"Low visibility, wet runway, low cloud base, all leading to very poor braking action is what looks like led to where we are at the moment with this crash," Martin said, calling for the European Aviation Safety Agency and the U.S.

The Air India Express flight was part of the Indian government's special repatriation mission to bring Indian citizens back to the country, officials said.

Air India Express is a subsidiary of Air India.

The last major plane crash in India was in 2010 when an Air India Express plane from Dubai to Mangalore overshot the runway and burst into flames.