The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau’s (AAIB) inquiry into Friday’s air crash at Calicut airport is zeroing on why the pilot of the Boeing 737 aircraft avoided Runway 28 despite all clearances and why he later missed the touchdown at Runway 10 while landing.
While the investigation team is continuing the close look into the crash site and the wreckage of the aircraft at Karipur and collecting all information from the aviation stake-holders, efforts are on to recover transcripts from the black box (flight data recorder) that has been shifted to the Director General of Civil Aviation's lab in Delhi.
The transcripts of from the black box comprising the flight data recorder (FDR) and a cockpit voice recorder will give investigators a real picture and parameters as the FDR records airspeed, altitude, vertical acceleration and fuel flow.
While the AAI has given a clean chit to the tabletop runway, aviation experts say the inquiry is zeroing on the aborted landing and the reasons why the pilot missed touchdown at Runway 10.
The Air India Express aircraft with 191 on board from Dubai had started descending on getting all clearances from the Air Traffic Control (ATC) to land in Runway 28 whose approach is from the landside. But, while descending to 1,900 feet, the pilot aborted landing and started climbing up to 7,000 ft proceding outbound towards the sea.
After going around for 20 kms into the sea, the pilot decided to land on Runway 10 that has an approach path from the seaward side. The pilot had clearance of the ATC and the profile of the Instrument Landing System (ILS) and that of the central line of the runway was in his favour.
Even the DGCA had confirmed that the visibility was around 2000 m. But, the plane touched down at 1,000 m of the 2,860-m runway, while the threshold marking for touchdown is about 300 m from the start. The inquiry will look into why the aircraft missed the touchdown and why the pilot did not abort the landing and climbed up.
The initial report submitted before the Ministry also stated that just after landing, the aircraft went out of the runway is also before the investigators. “It was observed by the controller that the aircraft has not touched down till abeam (intersection) taxiway C. On anticipation that the aircraft may overshoot runway the controller has asked the CFT (Crash Fire Tender) on PD point (predetermined position) to enter runway and follow the aircraft. Since the controller was not able to sight the aircraft at the end of the runway, fire bell and siren were activated. The CFT from the end of the runway reported being unable to sight the aircraft on the runway. CFT was asked to proceed to the valley and check,” the report stated.
The AAIB mandate is to conduct independent aircraft accident investigation and to obtain a preliminary report and assist in setting up of the committee of inquiry and formal investigation in accordance with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules.
