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Air India Express Flight Crash Highlights: Air India Express flight IX 1344 crashed at the Kozhikode international airport in Kerala last evening. The flight, flying in from Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), overshot the runway while landing at around 7.41 pm. As many as 18 people died in the crash, including both pilots. At least 100 others were injured. It was being operated as part of the Vande Bharat Mission – the Centre’s repatriation programme – and had about 190 people onboard. Kerala’s Governor Arif Mohammad Khan, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri visited Kozhikode today. Catch the latest updates here:
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It all happened in a flash. Or so it seemed. Just when they thought they had reached home, their plane skidded off the runway at the airport, breaking into two as it fell into a 35-feet gorge in pelting rain, survivors of the crash said on Saturday.For some, the homecoming never happened. Eighteen people were killed, including the two pilots. For others, the screams of their fellow passengers trapped in the twisted metal, the injuries, the close brush with death and the interminable wait to be rescued are part of a nightmare they may take a long time to wake up from. (PTI)
At least five airports, including at Kozhikode where an Air India Express aircraft crashed on Friday, have tabletop runways.They are: Kozhikode,Mangalore(Karnakata),Shimla(HimachalPradesh) andPakyong(Sikkim).
Seated on the last row of the plane,MuhammedJunaidsensed something was amiss when Air India Express flight IX 1344 from Dubai was jerked around by strong winds as it approached the southern Indian city of Kozhikode late on Friday.After an aborted attempt, the aircraft swung around and touched down on the runway, saidJunaid, who like many others onboard worked in the Middle East but was forced to return home when his salary halved because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nothing could serve as a more haunting reminder of the transience of life and happiness than the tragic demise of 35-year-old Sharafu Pilassery, who washappy to finally be returning home. The story of the last Facebook message posted by Pilassery, who died in the August 7 Air India Express flight crash, has gone viral. The resident of Kerala’s Kunnamangalam was returning from Dubai with his wife and child in the fateful flight that skid off the Karipur Airport runway and split into two, killing 18 on board.Hours before the Air India flight crashed, Pilassery had shared a picture of himself and his family in PPE kits and face shields and captioned it “Back to home”. Alas, his wish remained unfulfilled.
The plane swayed violently as it approached a hilltop runway soaked by monsoon rain, and moments later the special return flight for Indians stranded abroad by the pandemic skidded off, nosedived and cracked in two, leaving 18 dead and more than 120 injured.Among the injured on Friday night, at least 15 were in critical condition, said AbdulKarim, a senior police officer in southern Kerala state. 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.
Air safety expert Captain Mohan Ranganathan, who is a member of the Civil Aviation Ministry’s Safety Advisory Committee, has said the Kozhikode Air India Express flight crash was not an accident, it was a murder. Stating that he had submitted a report warning that the Karipur Airport is not safe for landings nine years ago, the air safety expert has claimed that the warnings were ignored. Adding that the mishap could have been avoided, he said: “The warnings were ignored... in my opinion, it is not an accident but a murder. Their own audits have had flagged safety issues.”
Several injured passengers of the ill-fated Air India Express flight from Dubai which overshot the runway and crashed at the airport here are yet to get over the horror moments that took them close to death.It was a black Friday for all the 184 passengers who after a long wait managed to get tickets in the repatriation flight from Dubai as part of the Centre'sVandeBharat Mission to evacuate Indians stranded abroad due to coronavirus pandemic.
"We did notrealisewhat really happened other than theflight was shaking," saidRamshad, who was injured as the aircraft dived into the valley and broke into two portions on Friday night after landing amid rains. Though he was injured,Ramshad'swifeSufairaand four- year old daughterSaidasherinescaped without any serious wounds. (PTI)
The technical issues with the runway at the Calicut International Airport where the Air India Express flight crashed on August 7, had been resolved, Airport Authority of India (AAI) ChairmanArvindSingh said on August 8.News agencyANIquoted him as saying: “Directorate General of Civil Aviation had some issues with the runway in 2015, but after resolving those issues, clearance was given to it in 2019. The jumbo jets of Air India also used to land there.”
The tragic air crash at Kozhikode, in which at least 18 people were killed, has triggered fresh hopes that the spotlight would be back on "risky" airports like the onein Patna which suffers from many deficiencies and has seen one of the major plane accidents in the country's history two decades back. TheJaiprakashNarayanInternational Airport, reckoned among the 20 busiest ones across the country, had hit the headlines on July 17, 2000 when more than 60 people were killed when a Delhi-bound Boeing 737 from Kolkataploughedthrough a residential locality.
Flights landing on runway 10 in tailwind conditions in rain at the Kozhikode airport endanger the lives of people onboard those flights, a civil aviation expert had warned in 2011. CaptainMohanRanganathanhad flagged concerns about the runway in a communication to then Civil Aviation SecretaryNasimZaidiin June 2011.Ranganathanwas then a member of theoperations group of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee (CASAC).
"... in spite of the danger if the crewaccept a landing in wet and tailwind conditions, their concept of ALAR (Approach and Landing Accident Reduction) is very poor," he had said in thecommunication.The communication came against the backdrop of an Air India Express aircraft crash atMangaloreairport in 2010. As many as 158 people had died in the crash."... all the flights that land on Runway 10 in the tailwind conditions in rain, are endangering the lives of all on board,"Ranganathanhad said. (PTI)
When the aircraft overshot the runway of the tabletop Kozhikode airport, it plunged 35 feet into a gorge and broke into two.
In most such cases, the flights go up in flame. Had it not been for Captain Sathe, this mishap could have much worse.
