Directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar said the tabletop runway at Calicut Airport, where an Air India Express plane crashed killing 18 people including both pilots on Friday, was long enough for the aircraft, but a late touchdown may have caused the plane to overshoot the runway. Edited excerpts from an interview:
What do we know about what happened with the Air India Express flight that crash-landed?
We don’t know much, the actual investigation is on. They {investigators} have got the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder so they have to open them and they have to study the transcripts and also the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) transcripts which they have obtained. All we know at this point of time is that the touchdown was late. That is the ATC information, more than 3,000 feet. Actually, if it was 3,000 feet, 4,000 {feet} or 2,000 {feet) — that will come out once everything is decoded. It was a 9,000 feet runway, which is a fairly long runway as I have been saying all along. It’s not a small runway, for example like Patna which is just 6,000 feet. It is a Code D runway and this is a Code C aircraft and the grading is like B, C, D where D is bigger to C. So under the circumstances, it is fit enough or more than fit enough for a Code C aircraft.
So you are saying length of the runway was big enough?
This runway was fit enough for bigger aircraft, so a smaller type of aircraft cannot complain of the length of the runway. So if you touch down late on any runway, suppose it’s a 12,000 feet runway, and you touchdown at 8,000 feet, then you can have problems.
Can you explain how that happens?
We can only say that it was a late touchdown and obviously the aircraft has skidded and gone beyond the runway and the safety area. That is also a big rectangle- -240 by 90 square metres — in all. The aircraft should have stopped there but it has gone beyond that. Fortunately for us, it has not gone far beyond, just 10 feet ahead. With the impact, it has broken into three parts. It could have gone even further, it could have been worse. All these facts, the real truth will come out once the investigation is done by AAIB (Air Accidents Investigating Branch) as under the international civil aviation organisation structure, it has to be an independent body carrying out the investigation. They can find fault with the DGCA too or with airport operator.
Who is heading that?
Mr Aurobindo Handa, an air force officer who is currently based out of India. He’s a joint secretary rank officer who is heading that bureau.