Friday night’s air crash at Kozhikode International Airport in Kerala, which claimed 18 lives, has brought back memories of a similar tragedy on May 22, 2010 in Mangaluru, which also has a table-top airport.
Of the 160 passengers and six crew members, 158 including all crew members had died in Managaluru after the aircraft overshot the runway, fell into a gorge, and caught fire. The casualty in Kozhikode was less as the aircraft did not catch fire.
However, an expert who facilitated the inquiry back then claimed that causes that led to the crash of Air India Express Boeing 737 in Mangaluru was vastly different in terms of cause and infrastructure of the two locations, besides the casualties they resulted in.
M.R. Vasudev, former director of Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) who facilitated the inquiry of Mangaluru crash and later was posted its director, said the crash was due to error by the Captain as he ignored the co-pilot’s suggestion to go around instead of immediate landing.
“Captain Zlatko Glusica had just come back from a 21-day-long leave after which Air India should have given refresher training. He was also given the round trip duty, flying from Mangaluru to Dubai and back, involving about eight hours of flying with limited rest,” recalled Mr. Vasudev. Dozing off in the cabin, he ignored co-pilot H.S. Ahluwalia’s request not to land immediately and go around instead.
“At Kozhikode, however, the aircraft appears to have skidded on the slippery runway and fell into the gorge following heavy rains,” he said. MIA has had several infrastructure changes after the tragic incident. Mr. Vasudev said that MIA built 240 m of Runway End Safety Area (RESA) on both the ends of the 2,450-m-long runway following the Directorate General of Civil Aviation’s directions after the crash. In contrast, Kozhikode airport has just 90 m of RESA. RESA is meant to arrest the speed of aircraft if it shoots the runway.
The existing instrument landing system at MIA was fixed inside the earth as per DGCA recommendations, though the proposal to extend the runway for 2,700 m is in limbo for want of land acquisition. “The existing facilities at MIA were more than enough to handle aircraft of the desired size,” Mr. Vasudev said, adding it was distinctly different from that of Kozhikode. Work on construction of a parallel taxiway for 2,400-m length to reduce the waiting time for aircraft is on while 1,200-m taxiway is ready.
Meanwhile, MIA Director V.V. Rao told The Hindu the Airports Authority of India has executed all works as suggested by DGCA to ensure safe handling of flights. There have been periodical inspection of facilities by the DGCA and no deficiencies were found.