While the main reason for the plane crash in Kozhikode airport was non-adherence to standard operating procedure (SOP) by the pilot, other contributory factors are also responsible for the crash. Moreover, lessons were not learnt from previous plane crashes.
The crash of Air India Express Flight 1344 on August 7, 2020, left 21 people dead including both of its pilots. After flying from Dubai, the pilot was trying to land the Boeing 737-800 at the Calicut International Airport amid rain. The plane overshot the runway and broke into pieces after falling off the cliff the runway was perched on. There were 190 people on board.
Aviation experts noted that after the Mangalore airport crash of 2010, a similar tragedy was waiting to happen at Kerala’s Kozhikode airport, which also had a tabletop runway with no overshoot area, making the airfield highly critical.
Though the DGCA has claimed to have implemented the recommendations from the report of the Mangalore crash, the investigation team said that in "various instances the recommendations have not been addressed effectively".
Quoting some of the observations, the investigation team said the DGCA did not take any action to remove the safety series in the civil aviation regulations (CAR) which related to the exceedance parameters for monitoring of Digital Flight Data Recorder (DFDR), the gadget used to record particular flying machine execution parameters.
"Various airlines including the Air India Express are not complying with the said CAR and have obtained DGCA approval of their flight safety manuals for utilizing exceedance parameters which are not in compliance with the CAR," the investigation pointed out.
Secondly, the DGCA flight inspectors are required to carry out frequent flying checks for flights to critical airfields (including table-top runways) and also during "red-eye" flights (scheduled to depart at night and arrive the next morning) and journeys during the Window of Circadian Low (a period during which the human body is programmed to sleep). The term "red-eye" derives from the symptom of having red eyes, which can be caused by fatigue.
"The data obtained from the DGCA indicated that no flying checks were carried out from January 2019 to June 2020 on any critical airfields or during Red-Eye flight," the investigation further pointed out.
Yashwant Shenoy, an expert who has been fighting for aviation safety in several high courts in India says that the Kozhikode crash was a textbook copy of the Mangalore crash.
"The primary reason for accident investigation is to prevent similar accidents in future. Calicut is a photocopy of what happened in Mangalore. It means either the inquiry of Mangalore crash was flawed or its recommendations were never implemented," Shenoy said while adding the DGCA filed affidavits in court that all recommendations of Mangalore crash have been complied with.
Moreover, the AAIB Report said that, though the airport was handling more than 79 flights per day, there was no approach radar available there. The investigation report claims that the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) facility available at the airport only provides surveillance and monitoring of the aircraft.
It was also pointed out that the AREF (airport rescue and fight fighting) crew at Kozhikode were not familiar with the type of aircraft, which resulted in poorly coordinated rescue operations and delayed evacuation of the pilots from the cockpit.
The AAIB released its probe report on Saturday. “Probable cause of the accident was the non-adherence to SOP (standard operating procedure) by the PF (pilot flying)," the report stated.
Captain Deepak Sathe, the pilot of the Air India Flight IX-1344 that crashed at Kozhikode, was an experienced hand with over 36 years of flying. Sathe was a former IAF pilot who flew MiG-21 fighter jets for over 21 years of service, before joining Air India as a commercial pilot in 2005. He was also given the Sword of Honour at the Air Force Academy in Hyderabad. Both Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were killed in the crash.
