A senior aviation safety expert has cautioned against allowing flights to land on a tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport during wet weather conditions.
Capt Mohan Ranganathan, a member of the Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Committee in India, said Friday's fatal crash should have been prevented.
An Air India Express Boeing 737 from Dubai to Kerala crash-landed at Kozhikode, formerly Calicut, airport on Friday night.
The plane overshot the airstrip, plunged into an 11-metre gorge and split into two, killing 18 people and injuring more than 100.
"This was a disaster waiting to happen," Capt Ranganathan told The National.
"Runway 10 in Calicut should never be used in a tailwind and when it’s raining.
This was a disaster waiting to happen. Runway 10 in Calicut should never be used in a tailwind and when it's raining
“If the runway is wet it is positively dangerous, so that is why we had voiced our objections and said, 'If you do not prevent that, you are going to have an accident.' We wrote that in 2011.”
Capt Ranganathan was part of an advisory panel set up by India's Civil Aviation Ministry after an Air India Express crash at Mangalore airport in May 2010 killed 158 passengers from Dubai.
He described Mangalore airport as "equally dangerous" with a similar runway on a table top, raising the risk of an aircraft plunging into the gorge if it overshot the runway.
Capt Ranganathan said planes larger than a Boeing 737 or an Airbus 320 should not be allowed to land on Runway 10 at all.
“Both Kozhikode and Mangalore are definitely unsuitable for wide-body aircraft, not just in the rains, at any time,” said Capt Ranganathan.
He said no action was taken on the committee’s recommendations.
India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation had not responded to Capt Ranganathan's comments.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said an investigation was ongoing. There were 184 passengers and six crew on board when it came down.
The pilot requested permission from air-traffic control to land on Runway 10 instead of Runway 28 in Kozhikode, Indian media reported.
Capt Ranganathan said Runway 28 might not have been an option because of reduced visibility with heavy cloud cover.
He said Runway 10 was not flat and had an insufficient safety buffer.
“It’s like an inverted 'V' with a downslope,” Capt Ranganathan said.
“What we found during the audit is that if an aircraft were to reject take-off it would go off the end of the runway, and there is no way the pilot could stop it because of the slope.”
He said the casualties would have been higher if it were a larger plane.
“It would not be 20 to 150 people dying, it will be about 400 people dying in an accident,” Capt Ranganathan said.
More passengers survived in Kozhikode because the wings did not splinter and start a fire.
In the Mangalore crash a decade ago, also in wet conditions, the plane plunged into a forested valley and burst into flames, with firefighters struggling to reach the site.
“This aircraft also would have caught fire if the wings had broken. But since the wings did not break, there was no fuel spilled,” Capt Ranganathan said.
“In Calicut the drop is only about 30 metres. In Mangalore, the drop was 100 metres The wings broke with the impact and fuel spilt."
Others have called for action to prevent another tragedy.
Dr Azad Moopen, managing director of Aster hospitals in the UAE and India, said the length of the Kozhikode runway was “compromised” and expansion was critical.
Dr Moopen said it was a “miraculous escape” for the passengers.
“Let us not lose any more lives,” he said.
“Calicut Airport has a 9,000-metre tabletop runway, which is not enough for safe landing during inclement weather and poor visibility conditions, especially in the night due to the hilly surroundings.”
Dr Moopen called on state and federal governments to avoid another disaster.
“Political parties and people’s representatives must take this up as top priority, as the government has already decided to acquire the land and the airport authority had agreed to allot the required funds to proceed with runway expansion,” he said.
In the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, sent condolences to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the crash on Friday night.
"You remain in our prayers during these difficult times," Sheikh Mohamed wrote on Twitter.
Understand What Black Is
The Last Poets
(Studio Rockers)
RACE SCHEDULE
All times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Friday, September 29
First practice: 7am - 8.30am
Second practice: 11am - 12.30pm
Saturday, September 30
Qualifying: 1pm - 2pm
Sunday, October 1
Race: 11am - 1pm
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
England World Cup squad
Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
The biog
Occupation: Key marker and auto electrician
Hometown: Ghazala, Syria
Date of arrival in Abu Dhabi: May 15, 1978
Family: 11 siblings, a wife, three sons and one daughter
Favourite place in UAE: Abu Dhabi
Favourite hobby: I like to do a mix of things, like listening to poetry for example.
Favourite Syrian artist: Sabah Fakhri, a tenor from Aleppo
Favourite food: fresh fish
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
SUE%20GRAY'S%20FINDINGS
%3Cp%3E%22Whatever%20the%20initial%20intent%2C%20what%20took%20place%20at%20many%20of%20these%20gatherings%20and%20the%3Cbr%3Eway%20in%20which%20they%20developed%20was%20not%20in%20line%20with%20Covid%20guidance%20at%20the%20time.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22Many%20of%20these%20events%20should%20not%20have%20been%20allowed%20to%20happen.%20It%20is%20also%20the%20case%20that%20some%20of%20the%3Cbr%3Emore%20junior%20civil%20servants%20believed%20that%20their%20involvement%20in%20some%20of%20these%20events%20was%20permitted%20given%20the%20attendance%20of%20senior%20leaders.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22The%20senior%20leadership%20at%20the%20centre%2C%20both%20political%20and%20official%2C%20must%20bear%20responsibility%20for%20this%20culture.%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22I%20found%20that%20some%20staff%20had%20witnessed%20or%20been%20subjected%20to%20behaviours%20at%20work%20which%20they%20had%20felt%20concerned%20about%20but%20at%20times%20felt%20unable%20to%20raise%20properly.%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%22I%20was%20made%20aware%20of%20multiple%20examples%20of%20a%20lack%20of%20respect%20and%20poor%20treatment%20of%20security%20and%20cleaning%20staff.%20This%20was%20unacceptable.%22%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD
How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
In numbers
Number of Chinese tourists coming to UAE in 2017 was... 1.3m
Alibaba’s new ‘Tech Town’ in Dubai is worth... $600m
China’s investment in the MIddle East in 2016 was... $29.5bn
The world’s most valuable start-up in 2018, TikTok, is valued at... $75bn
Boost to the UAE economy of 5G connectivity will be... $269bn
AIDA%20RETURNS
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ECarol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EAida%20Abboud%2C%20Carol%20Mansour%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203.5.%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
