In June 2011, Ranganathan flagged concerns about the runway in a communication to then Civil Aviation Secretary Nasim Zaidi in June 2011. Ranganathan was then a member of the operations group of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee (CASAC).
“The flight departed from New Delhi at 8.10 am IST and is scheduled to reach Toronto at 6:40 pm (local time). The airline chartered a wide-body Airbus A330-900 Neo aircraft from Hi Fly for this flight. The twin-aisle A330 Neo aircraft has a configuration of 353 economy and 18 business class seats,” the airline said in a statement.
After evacuating Indian citizens who were stranded in Dubai to due the pandemic, the Air India Express plane overshot the runway at Calicut, Kozhikode, leading to 18 deaths, and 16 severely injured. The incident is one of the country's worst passenger flight accident in 10 years.
Constructed by the Airport Authority of India at an estimated cost of Rs 605 crore, it is an "engineering marvel" for its soil reinforcement and slope stabilisation techniques keeping in view the altitude it was built at.
The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic, overshot the runway of the Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday. The plane skidded off the runway, plunging into a valley and crashing nose-first into the ground, officials said.
A tabletop runway, like the one in Kozhikode, is built on the plateau of a hill, with one or both ends leading to a deep gorge. The runways are tricky and can create an optical illusion which makes it difficult for a pilot to land safely. India has three such runways.
A Vande Bharat flight from Dubai skid off the destination runway landing into a 30 feet deep ditch, killing 18 people including the two pilots and seriously injuring 100 others. In a statement, Air India said Rs 10 lakh would be provided to the closest relative of any deceased passengers of age 12 years and above.
This incident occurred a day after an Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people onboard overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport in rainy conditions and went down 35 feet into a slope before breaking up into two pieces, killing at least 18 people.
On Friday, the airline's plane overshot the runway at Kozhikode airport, fell into a slope before breaking into two pieces. While there was no fire, at least 18 people, including two pilots, are dead in the crash, which also happened when there were rains.
The revelation came a day after an Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people on board overshot "runway 10" at the Calicut airport in heavy rain and went down 35 feet into a gorge before breaking into two pieces, killing at least 18 people.
The 50% capacity mark will be reached when India sees 1.5 lakh domestic flyers daily. On August 3, there were just over 78,000 people flying within the country.
An Air India Express Boeing 737 broke apart after going off the runway at Kozhikode airport in heavy rain late on Friday. About 18 people, including the two pilots, were killed, according to officials. The Vande Bharat repatriation flight from Dubai was carrying 190 people, said the civil aviation ministry. They comprised 184 passengers, two pilots and four cabin attendants, it said. Take a look at this ground report by TIMES NOW's Vivek Karindalam from outside the Calicut airport where the unfortunate accident took place yesterday.
Two special relief flights have been arranged from Delhi and one from Mumbai for rendering humanitarian assistance to all the passengers and the family members, the airline, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Air India, said.
The tabletop Kozhikode airport is a high-risk landing tarmac - what makes such airports vulnerable? On Friday, one of the worst air disasters in Kerala took place, as an Air India Express flight returning from Dubai under the 'Vande Bharat' mission skidded off the runaway at the 'table top' airport in Kozhikode, leaving at least 18 people dead, including the pilots Captain D.V. Sathe and co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar. After landing on Runway 10, the plane continued to skid towards the end of the runway and eventually fell down in the valley, splitting into two parts.
Minister of State for Minister of External Affairs V Muraleedharan on August 07 expressed his grieved after Air India plane crashed in Kozhikode and said due to hard landing aircraft skidded off beyond runway. “It's a sad and unfortunate incident. Perhaps, because of heavy rain in Calicut, it seems the pilot could not land & then in second attempt he landed but there was hard landing, after which aircraft skid off beyond runway,” said MoS MEA Muraleedharan.
At least 15 people were killed after an Air India Express plane with 190 onboard from Dubai skidded off the runway and broke in two while landing at Kerala's Kozhikode on Friday amid heavy rain, the police said. Among those killed was Wing Commander Deepak Vasant Sathe, one of the pilots of Flight IX-1344, authorities said.
