Kozhikode Air Disaster

 

The air disaster due to runway excursion at Kozhikode airport, India, is burning news for the last few days.

Friday, August 7, 2020, Flight IX-1344 Air India ExpressBoeing 737-800 aircraft (with India gate printed on the tailpiece) from Dubai to Kozhikode with 190 people, skidded off the tabletop runway in heavy rain, nosedived into a 35-metre slope and the fuselage broke into pieces. Eighteen people died and, more than 150 were injured. 

The airport has a single runway which can be used at both ends. One side it is called Runway 28, another side Runway 10. It is said, after making two failed attempts to land on Runway 28, the pilot decided to land the Boeing from the other side of the runway numbered Runway 10.

The newspaper reports were highlighting the tabletop airport as the cause, rain as the cause of the accident. Which are not reasonable arguments, apparently. 

The Kozhikode runway is fairly long, not a short runway. It is an international airport and the current runway is meant for even a widebody aircraft to land. Of course, it is a tabletop runway, that means, the Pilots must take precaution, for sure.

The Kozhikode airport had a 6000 ft (1,800 meters) runway in 2006, now it is 2,860 meter (9,000 ft more than 2.7 KM) and declared an international airport. The airport has been functioning for the last 14 years without any major accidents; otherwise, the airport would have been closed long back. There is nothing wrong as far as common sense dictates.

However, many known facts are not considered, that could be the cause of the accident, by any of the leading newspaper pandits. 

Let me highlight a few: 

1. According to Air Traffic Control, the touchdown of the aircraft in the runway was beyond the touchdown point (nearly one KM away from the usual touchdown point) from the stipulated 300ft distance from the starting point of the runway… the reason could be poor visibility, rain whatever, who is the cause and who is the responsible person … the Pilots???
2. The touch down of the aircraft at the runway was in high speed (need to be established). According to Flightradar24, the aeroplane was at 176 knots (325KM/H) at around 925 feet above the surface of the runway. 

Now the landing speed is calculated taking into many aspects, the weather condition, wind condition and the length of the runway, the gross weight of the aircraft. Now ATC and the Pilots might have had some calculations regarding this and who made mistakes? - a well-experienced pilot, even the one who worked in airforce can make mistakes. 

Let us not worry about the speed factor (before correct information comes from the investigation). The apparent reason, why in a tabletop runway, the pilot made the touchdown much beyond the point? And this caused the Boeing Aircraft not have sufficient distance to stop.