- What’s known?
The Air India Express flight, coming from Dubai and crash near the threshold of Calicut International Airport, also known as Karipur Airport, in Kozhikode at around 7.40 pm. In this tragic incident, seventeen people including the pilot of the aircraft were killed while 123 were severely injured when an Air India Express plane skidded off the runway at Karipur airport in Kerala on Friday evening. The Air India Express plane fell into a valley and split into two parts after skidding off the runway at Kozhikode airport, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The injured of the crash have been transferred to hospitals in Malappuram & Kozhikode
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his grief over the tragic incident and also spoke to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on phone.
Even the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri has expressed his grief over the incident and said, “Deeply anguished and distressed at the air accident in Kozhikode… We are in touch with local authorities… Relief teams from Air India & AAI are being immediately dispatched from Delhi & Mumbai. All efforts being made to help passengers. A formal enquiry will be conducted by AAIB.”
- Assumptions and reason:
Loads of assumptions are being drawn around the crash like the pilot might not have received adequate training before flying the airplane. As per standards, pilots have to undergo training at least twice a year only then they are deemed as ‘fit’ to fly an airplane. However, this year the training which is conducted with the help of simulators was cancelled due to the ongoing Pandemic situation of COVID-19 till September 30. And so, there might be a high chance that Pilot wasn’t fit to fly.
Secondly, a salary cut in the offing may also have played a considerable role behind the crash as it was recently declared that all pilots will be going a salary cut of 60 per cent. Hence, the mental stress of the pilots can be put down as one of the reasons behind the plane crash. However, the deceased pilot has been identified as Deepak Vasant Sathe, a former Wing Commander in the Indian Air Force who retired from the service in 2003 and was one of the most experienced commanders with more than 10,000 flying hours. Sathe had a total flying experience of 1,723 hours and had landed aircraft 27 times at the Karipur airport including this year thereby rendering the above assumptions null and void.
So, what now? Well, as per the third speculation, the Karipur airport runway at which this accident happened is called the ‘tabletop’ runway. And the runway is supposedly dangerous and large aircraft do not land at this airport following light problems on this runway.
Light problem? Yes, usually runways have lights in the middle which is called ‘centre light’ to give a better estimate of the runway for a safe landing but this particular one had no such light on this runway and is called Black Hole Approach’.
And to add to that, the incessant rains in the region, the plane might have experienced tailwind along with the problem of ‘black hole’ approach, thereby resulting to the tragic accident for a proper estimate of the runway could not be made.
- Decluttering the assumptions: mystery solved?
The black box of the Air India Express flight that crashed at Kerala’s Kozhikode airport on Friday evening has been recovered and is supposed to play a crucial role in revealing the reasons close to the incident. According to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the black box stores crucial information about a plane’s altitude, position and speed, as well as records of conversations between the pilots.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri tweeted, “Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR) and Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. AAIB (Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau) is conducting investigations,” as fresh questions were raised on the safety parameters of the runway. He also added that it was way too soon to conclude anything as of now.
Later when Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri visited the site, he announced an interim relief of Rs 10 lakh for the kin of the deceased, Rs 2 lakh for the critically injured and Rs 50,000 for those who sustained minor injuries. Additionally, CM Pinarayi Vijayan also announced Rs 10 lakh for the deceased.
The Centre also said that all agencies, including the AAIB, DGCA and flight safety department, were on the spot to investigate and ascertain various aspects of the crash.
Airports Authority of India Chairman Arvind Singh said “corrective action” would be taken after receiving the probe report of the crash. Well, it seems that investigation is still going on and will take a bit more time to declutter the rumours, assumptions and reveal facts and reason. But till then, patience is needed to be exercised for facts and truth are the only daughters of time and will come to light for sure.
