Flights from Bahrain to Mangalore, the site of yesterday's aviation tragedy, are back to normal, an airline official has confirmed.

An Air India Express flight will leave Bahrain on schedule at 13.00 hours to the Indian port city today.

The Mangalore airport opened yesterday itself, and 'today's flight has good load', the official said.

Fifteen relatives and friends of Bahrain residents were among 158 people killed when Air India Express flight IX812 from Dubai crashlanded and burst into flames at Mangalore International Airport in Karnataka at around 6am local time.

The plane, carrying 166 passengers and crew, overshot the so-called 'table-top' airstrip, which sits on a hill surrounded by deep gorges located just 30 metres from the runway.

Among the dead were five members of the same family on their way to the wedding of one of the victims.

Eight people miraculously escaped with minor injuries.

A Bahrain resident was thanking his lucky stars yesterday for his providential escape after being bumped off the ill-fated flight.

Chandrasekhar Guruvappa had booked a ticket on the Dubai-Mangalore service to attend his father-in-law's funeral.

However, hours before he was due to fly the airline called to inform him that he would have to fly another day as the flight was already full.

His Majesty King Hamad yesterday sent a cable of condolences to Indian President Pratibha Patil over the crash.

His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander, sent similar cables. HRH the similar cable to his Indian counterpart Dr Manmohan Singh.

Shura Council chairman Ali Saleh Al Saleh sent condolence cables to Lok Sabha (lower house of parliament) Speaker Meira Kumar and Rajya Sabha (upper house of parliament) deputy chairman K Rahman Khan.-TradeArabia News Service