Purely based on reports that the pilot touched down 2000 ft down the runway, it seems that instead of going around the pilots decided to put it down and banged it down on the runway. This caused the tyre/s to burst and the plane to veer off the runway, hit the localiser and go down the hill. Again, this is purely conjecture on my part and only the black boxes and the ATC together can shed more light on this accident. The ATC is strangely silent. They should have seen what happened.
Again, there seems to be no obvious indications of a terror attack. A similar accident happened to an American Airlines B737 a few weeks ago in Jamaica - overshoot, aircraft broke up - but on a beach and all got out. In Brasil 2 yrs ago, a TAM A320 overshot the runway , went down the hill on the other side and crashed into a commercial building. No survivors. Air France A340 in Toronto also went into a small ditch after a long landing in bad weather. Swift action by the crew saved everyone before the plane burnt.
Happens far too often.
Per Wikipedia, the runways at Mangalore International Airport are:
09/27: asphalt, 5,300 feet
06/24: concrete, 8,038 feet
Again per the Wikipedia article on the airport (take it with a grain of salt), IX 802 went off the end of the longer runway—runway 24—and into the gorge on the west side of the airport. 8,000 feet is far more runway than needed to safely operate a 737 in most conditions. From initial impressions, it has the hallmarks of a classic pilot error crash, but it’s way too early to tell.
}:-)4