Air India flight 1344 was scheduled to travel on 7th August 2020 from Dubai, to Kozhikode. The flight was a part of the Vande Bharat Mission to repatriate Indian nationals abandoned because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The flight crew made two aborted landing attempts because of heavy rain and tailwind. On the third landing attempt, the aircraft touched down on runway 10, but skidded off the end of the runway and fell into a 9–10.5 m (30–35 ft) gorge, killing 16 passengers and both pilots. The four cabin crew members and 168 passengers survived, of whom over 100 were injured.
The runway condition:
•Kozhikode airport was opened back
in 1988
•Length of the runway during
opening was 1,830 metres.
•Number of daily flights, at the
time of opening was 45 (now 10).
•Surface Wind on August 7 was 8
knots
The Kozhikode table-top runway-
Tabletop runways are for the most
part built by cleaving off the most elevated of a slope, and are regularly
thought of as precarious for arrivals because of the deficiency of any edge for
overshooting the runway. As per pilots, arriving on tabletop runways requires
exactness approach with next to zero space for mistakes.
What is RESA?
•The Runway End Safety Area is the
surface surrounding the runway that helps reduce the risk of damage to an
aircraft in the event of an undershoot or overshoot from the runway
What happened on August 7 in Kozhikode Airport?
•Pilot Deepak V Sathe and co-pilot
Akhilesh Kumar try to land the jet on runway number 28, but fail.
•It is raining, but visibility is
2,000 meters.
•Plane circles the airport a number
of times.
•7.41 pm: The plane approaches from
the sea side and lands on runway 10.
•Actual touchdown marker is around
1,000 ft from the start of the 2,860-metre runway runway (about 300 meters).
•But the plane touches down at near
mid-point (about 1,500 meters).
•Soon after crash, fire tenders
circle the area and spray foam to form a protective carpet around the flight as
fuel is leaking.
•8.00 pm onwards: Passengers come
out through the broken part of the aircraft before the rescue operations begin.
•11.45 pm: Rescue operations
complete when all the trapped passengers are taken out from the mangled remains
of the aircraft.
Investigation-
The Directorate General of Civil
Aviation (DGCA), Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) and Flight
Safety Departments are investigating the accident. The cockpit voice recorder
and flight data recorder were recovered the next day and sent to Delhi for
analysis. Boeing is probably going to send its investigation team to look at
debris of the aircraft for defects and assist the probe. The AAIB team in
Kozhikode is probing the incident with the assistance of Airports Authority of
India officials, air traffic control, ground staff, CISF, the fire team and the
rescue team. It has found evidence of waterlogging of the runway at the time of
landing. It is also checking whether ATC was aware of waterlogging and whether
the pilots adhered to rules. The preliminary investigation report was expected
to be ready in a week after the accident. Another five-member committee was
setup by AAIB on 13 August, to investigate the incident. It will be headed by
Captain S.S. Chahar, former designated examiner on Boeing 737 Next Generation.
The final report will be submitted in five months. The committee will also
provide recommendations to avoid such accidents in future.
Initial findings suggest that at
the time of landing, the tailwind was around 9 knots (17 km/h). The aircraft
was at 176 knots (326 km/h) at an altitude of roughly 450 feet (140 m) above
the surface of runway 10, which isn’t considered ideal for short finals during
poor weather conditions. The throttle was found to be in a fully forward
position (takeoff or go-around position) and the spoilers were retracted from
the position of the speed brake lever, which indicates that the pilots might
have tried for a go-around. The tailwind, rubber deposits and wet runway affecting
the braking performance of the aircraft are thought to be contributory factors
to the accident. Civil Aviation Minister, Hardeep Puri, in a press conference
at Kozhikode on 8 August, said that there had been sufficient fuel on board for
the aircraft to have flown to a diversion airport. The possibility of pilot
error, as a cause of the accident, was suggested by DGCA's Arun Kumar.
Compensation-
The Government of India and Kerala,
each announced an interim relief of ₹10 lakh (US$14,000) compensation for the
families of the deceased above the age of 12 years, ₹5 lakh (US$7,000) for
below the age of 12 years, ₹2 lakh (US$2,800) for seriously injured and ₹50,000
(US$700) for those who sustained minor injuries. It was also announced that the
medical expenses of the injured would be borne by the state government.
----Nivethi Natarajan
