The Air India Express plane crash at the Calicut International Airport (Karipur) on August 7 was eerily redolent of the July 9, 2012 accident where an Air India Express Boeing 737-800 aircraft skidded off the same runway during heavy rain. That accident took place two years after the 2010 plane crash at the Mangalore International Airport where an Air India Express flight crashed landed on the tabletop runway and caught fire, killing 158 passengers.
It was after the Mangaluru plane crash that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) declared Karipur and 10 other airports as critical and released a set of guidelines to be followed. “I was in charge to ensure these guidelines were implemented when I took over in 2012 as Director-General of Civil Aviation,” said EK Bharat Bhushan. That year, especially after the July 2012 accident, he had warned to revoke the licence of the Calicut airport, if safety norms were not followed.
Of course, as the DGCA chief, Bharat Bhushan was not new to the Calicut Airport. In fact, it was this 1979 batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer who spearheaded the completion of Karipur Airport in 1988 when he was the collector of Malappuram district at the time. When he was brought on board to ensure its completion, one of the main challenges he had encountered then was acquiring land to extend the tabletop runway, which is the smallest airport runway in Kerala. Due to stiff public opposition, the runway could not be extended.
As a bureaucrat who is familiar with the Calicut International Airport, TNM caught up with Bharat Bhushan to understand what could have gone wrong when the ill-fated aircraft landed on Runway 10 on Friday. Were safety regulations followed before the flight landed? What could be the solution with regard to the tabletop runway?
What was your initial assessment of what could have gone wrong when the aircraft skidded off the runway?
Based on my field knowledge, there are a lot of factors involved in matters like an aviation accident, including the pilot, the aircraft, the Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the airport. Even a marginal change in the parameters of these factors can cause accidents. So, only a comprehensive inquiry, as mandated under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) guidelines, can tell what happened. It is important that I don’t make any first impression at all.
However, the Calicut International Airport is a critical airport with restrictions. During the monsoon season, the Malabar region receives heavy rains and there is depression over the Bay of Bengal. There were massive landslides in Kerala before the plane crash. That was the kind of situation we were facing that day. I can only say that it was a difficult day for the pilots in terms of weather. I would not be surprised if there was a missed approach.
When an aircraft lands or takes off, it leaves behind rubber deposits from the tires when they glide across the runway. Excessive rubber deposits could reduce the friction, a concern that the DGCA had raised about the Karipur airport in 2019. Do you think the rubber deposits were not removed or a friction test of the runway was not carried out prior to the landing of IX-1344, especially when it was raining?
There are machines to periodically remove the rubber deposits and it is a standard procedure to do a friction test of the runway. But I don’t know if there has been any negligence on the part of the airport authorities. If it is found that there was a lapse in any of these routine checks, the DGCA is authorised to withdraw the licence of the Calicut Airport.
There are numerous discussions on why the length of the runway was not extended, especially considering it is a tabletop runway and that the landowners are not willing to give away their land.
This is a tabletop runway with a lot of restrictions. The runway length was 2,700 metres. Since we could not acquire the required land, we set up RESA or Runway End Safety Area (buffer zone at the ends of the runway to reduce risk if the aircraft overruns) spanning 240 metres at both ends of the runway, plus a strip of 60 metres on either side. However, this aircraft overshot the RESA.
But there are reports that Runway 10, where the aircraft finally landed, did not have RESA.
That is not true.
What do you think is the solution now?
Currently, there is no space to extend the runway. Any common man will know the best solution would be to extend the runway so that there is more leeway for the pilot. I personally feel we need to acquire more land for this, but there is a lot of opposition because the land is very dear to people in Kerala.
There have been some 12 acquisitions so far and landowners allege that they have not received their compensation. In such a scenario, would other landowners be willing to accept a deal from the government?
I was in charge of the acquisition at the time, and everybody got compensation as far as I know. So if we pay the landowners their due, they will be willing to give their land for extending the runway and setting up other supporting structures.
What do you expect from the inquiry?
The Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB), which was formed after I left DGCA, will examine all aspects. Apart from the technical details, they will also look into the mental well-being of the pilot. They will get to know what was the conversation that transpired between the two pilots and if the pilots had proper rest the previous day as per the rest period norms of the DGCA.