Twitterati highlight similarities in M'luru, Kozhikode crashes

Within an hour after the Air India Express accident at Kozhikode International Airport, also known as Karipur tabletop airport, the Twitterati were highlighting how Karipur and Mangaluru Air crash in 2010 had many similarities.

Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Pratap Reddy also declared observing many coincidences in both the crashes. Reddy, who had served in Mangaluru as IGP (Western Range), tweeted, “.... very distressing to see eerie similarities to the Mangalore crash of 2010.
Condolences to the families who lost loved ones in Kozhikode.).”

The Twitterati pointed out that both the airports were tabletop airstrips.

Kozhikode airport too had a similar drop at the end of the runway. The 2010 crash of Air India Express (IX-812) was a Dubai flight with 180 passengers and eight crew. Low visibility and rain had also contributed to the crash. Experts had suggested increasing the runway end safety zone (RESA) and the buffer zone at both the tabletop airports.

The similarities end here. Unlike in Mangaluru Air crash, when the aircraft nosedived into the valley and broke into pieces, the AI Express did not go up in flames. The fire took a heavy toll of lives leaving only eight survivors in 2010 Mangaluru Air crash.

Twitterati tagging their posts to DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation), Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) regretted that civil aviation officials had not learnt from their mistakes costing precious lives.

Implement Gokhale report

“Kozhikode tragedy could have been avoided if the 191-page ‘Gokhale Report’ on Mangaluru crash in 2010 was taken seriously,” a tweet read.

The report, though focused on Mangaluru incident, had a number of references of Kozhikode (like flight crew being better trained with help of simulators). Twitterati also urged the government to declare all three tabletop runways (Mangaluru, Kozhikode and Lengpui (Manipur) as unsafe and close them immediately.

“We should not have a repeat of Mangalore and Kozhikode air crashes,” the Twitterati hoped.

Set up CoI

IX 812 Foundation President Yeshwant Shenoy urged Union Minister of Civil Aviation to order a Court of Inquiry (CoI).

“At CoI we will get an opportunity to place on record the data we have. Your officers killed 158 in Mangaluru, they killed 5 at Ghatkoper and now they have killed 19 and we are still counting,” he charged.

Shenoy, who has filed cases on behalf of the passengers and pilot of the ill-fated aircraft that crashed in Mangaluru, vowed to approach courts if the Ministry failed to order the CoI.