Kerala plane tragedy: PIL against tabletop runways, learnings from Mangaluru Airport crash ignored

Putting the entire blame of Friday’s Air India Express crash on pilot error, are aviation regulators ignoring their role in blocking pleas that warned about the inherent risks attached to tabletop airports? The Environment Support Group (ESG) says its repeated pleas from 2000 on the risks involved were ignored.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief had indicated in a televised interview on Saturday that the pilot’s error of judgment could have led to the accident that killed 18 people. Aviation safety consultants endorsed this, but only partly, stating that the Kozhikode airport had unaddressed faults.

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Although ESG’s Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was against the construction of the Mangaluru Airport’s second runway on a tabletop, its contentions on the ‘Minimum Area of Stop-way” are relevant to the Kozhikode airport too.

Citing International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) rules, the PIL had noted: “If an aircraft has initiated take off, and a technical flaw requires an emergency stop, the standard prescribes the minimum area that should be kept free to enable such a stop.”

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The Mangaluru Airport runway was about 2400m. “Even if the area left is most cautiously utilised, what is left is only about 300m on each end of the runway. By the prescribed standard, this is far below the required distance needed for an emergency stop way.”

Therefore, the PIL drafted by Leo Saldanha noted, “the chances of an aircraft that has achieved the decision speed forcing an emergency stop are critically minimised, and the inevitable consequence could be that the plane would come crashing down the hillsides from a height of 80-100 metres on either side of the proposed runway.”

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In the case of Kozhikode airport, the height of the tabletop was only 30-35m. But the Runway End Safety Area (RESA) was much less than the 300m on each end of the runway.

Aviation safety consultant Capt Mahesh Ranganathan explained this to DH, “On runways where conditions are not conducive for safe operations, the recommended RESA is 240m. But this does not start at the end of the runway. It has to start after a 60m mandatory strip on both ends. That makes it 300m on both ends.”

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Countering the DGCA claim that adequate RESA was ensured by reducing the runway length, he contended: “There is no land for extension of the Kozhikode airport runway as it is on a hilltop. To ensure 300m on either end, you need to reduce runway length by 600m. But it was brought down only by 160m.”