The complicated story of an airline crash
The TLDR: An Air India Express plane overshot the runway in Kozhikode, Kerala, and broke into two. As of today, 19 are dead—including both pilot and co-pilot and four children—and 23 are still in a serious condition. The exact reasons for the crash, however, are still up in the air—with the government strongly hinting at pilot error. But the hilltop runway itself has been a source of controversy for years, as have other similar runways in the country. Meanwhile, on the very same day, 43 people died in a nearby landslide, but no one is paying much attention to that story.
The flight: The two-year-old Boeing 737-800 flew in from Dubai on Friday at 7:40 pm in the midst of torrential rain. It was a repatriation flight, bringing back 174 adult Indians, 10 infants, two pilots and four cabin crew. Many of them were working class Indians who had lost their Middle East jobs to the pandemic—and were waiting for months to return home. The pilot was 56-year-old Deepak Sathe—a highly experienced former Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force—who had successfully landed the plane 27 times at Kozhikode. The co-pilot was 32-year-old Akhilesh Kumar.
The known facts
- The plane looped around the airport and made the first attempt to land. According to Indian Express, “the pilot reported visibility issues and, after coming down to about 2,000 feet, decided to try landing again.”
- Point to note: The first attempt was on runway 28 which would have been more ideal. The reason: the plane would have faced headwinds which would have helped slow the plane down.
- The crew then attempted a second landing, this time on the opposite end, on runway 10. The problem: The pilots had to deal with strong tailwinds—of 11 knots (20 km/hour)—which pushed the plane forward.
- There is no hard evidence as to what the pilots did next, but according to a passenger: “The plane landed at such a high speed and then braked really hard… There’s usually a jerk when you land, but this was much harder and then suddenly the plane started going faster.”
- The plane then overshot the runway and crashed 40 feet over the hillside—and broke into two.
- The one piece of good luck: it did not catch fire either because of the rains or because the pilots switched the engines off—or both.
- In a similar 2010 crash in Mangalore, 150 people died when the plane plunged down a 300-feet gorge and burst into flames.
- See the clip of the crash site below.
The case for pilot error
Aviation officials and some pilots suggest that the very decision to land was foolhardy—on that particular runway, and in such weather conditions. Arun Kumar, India’s director general of civil aviation, explained:
“The basic problem, as we understand it in this incident, is that on a runway of 8,500 feet, the plane landed after crossing one third of the strip, beyond 3,000 feet...
What normally happens under such conditions is that the pilot does a go-round and either tries to land again or not land at all, given the weather conditions. Touchdown must happen within the first 500 feet of the strip…”
Kumar’s thesis is simple: The pilots violated the basic rules of aviation.
Point to note: Aviation officials also underlined another fact: All planes have enough fuel to divert the flight to a backup airport—which in this case was Tiruchirappally in Tamil Nadu, 45 minutes from the Kozhikode airport.
The latest bit of speculation: claims that the pilots attempted to take off again after they realised that they had landed far too deep into the runway. If true, the chain of events would make this tragedy even more similar to the Mangalore crash. Times of India has this angle.
The case for government negligence
Kozhikode is a tabletop airport—i.e. it is built on top of a hill with one or both ends of the runway ending in a steep drop. There are seven such airports in the country: Lengpui (Mizoram), Shimla and Kullu (Himachal Pradesh), Pakyong (Sikkim), Kozhikode and Kannur (both Kerala) and Mangalore (Karnataka)—where the previous such tragedy occurred. See what the Kozhikode runway looks like below:
Why this matters: Overshooting a runway—which is a minor mishap at other airports—is a recipe for disaster on a tabletop airport. Hence, added precautions were strongly recommended in the past.
Added precaution #1: is something called an EMAS or Engineered Materials Arrestor/Arresting System—made of lightweight and crushable cellular cement/concrete. It is basically an ‘arresting bed’ built at the end of a runway to stop a plane in its tracks. An investigation into the Mangalore crash recommended their implementation at all tabletop airports.
In a 2011 letter, a senior government advisor specifically warned: “All flights landing at the runway at Kozhikode ‘in tailwind condition in rain are endangering the lives of all on board… It is a dangerous situation, especially in wet conditions.’"
But the advice was rejected by Kozhikode’s airport director, as The Hindu reported back in 2018:
“Technical experts should be flown down from abroad in case of an overrunning aircraft and the runway would have to be closed for several days… The EMAS technology was unsuitable for the Calicut airport. How can we bear the cost of ₹100 crore (Rs 1 billion) for an imported technology.”
Added precaution #2: Extending the length of the runways. Back in 2017, the Airports Authority of India made plans to extend Kozhikode’s 2750-metre runway by 800 metres:
“Given that there is a gorge at the end of the runway, extension would have required additional land and building of flyover-like structures. We asked for land from the state government but they told us the land acquisition cost is very high.”
The plan initially required an additional 800 acres—which was reduced to 100 acres. But it was shelved due to resistance from local residents who refused to give up their land.
Key point to note: Even if the government was unable to implement the advice, it could have restricted the airport to only narrow-body planes and banned landings on runway 10 during the monsoons.
The bottomline: The immediate causes of this airline crash will be uncovered by investigators. Irrespective of whether the pilots made a mistake—in very difficult conditions—it is clear that the governments (state and union) always had their priorities in lucrative order. The facts speak for themselves:
- The total revenue generated by Kozhikode airport in 2018-19 was Rs 2.5 billion—of which 50% was profit.
- In August, the Union government green-lit the operation of wide-body aircraft, which had been suspended in May, 2015, due to safety concerns. The reason: it is a hugely popular and profitable destination for Haj pilgrims.
- The planned expansion by the state government: upping passenger traffic from 3.5 to 5 million per year, and building a brand new international block at a cost of Rs 1.2 billion.
- Also eyeing the Kozhikode prize: The union government which plans to privatise the airport.
- The one downside: It will be hard to find suitors in the midst of a pandemic.
Reading list
- The best reporting on the crash is in the New York Times, Times of India and Indian Express.
- The Hindu offers a guide to tabletop airports—and the aviation rules that applied to both pilots and airports.
- The locals did a heroic job of rescuing the passengers. Indian Express reports on their critical role. The Telegraph turns the spotlight on the often-maligned Muslim residents of Mallapuram.
- The Print has the best backstory on the passengers—and why many were coming home.
- Also read: an India Today cover story from 2012 (after the Mangalore tragedy) on how profit trumps safety at Indian airports. Not much has changed since.
- On that Kerala landslide: Times of India has horror stories from survivors. Indian Express has the latest details. And The Lede has a must-watch news video.