Kozhikode plane crash: Need for land to extend runway ran into govt wall

“Given that there is a gorge at the end of the runway, extension would have required additional land and building of flyover-like structures. We asked for land from the state government but they told us the land acquisition cost is very high,” an AAI official told The Sunday Express.

Read | Kerala flight crash: Pilot says he raised red flags over tabletop runway at Karipur

The need for this was strongly underlined by former Former Kerala bureaucrat E K Bharat Bhushan, who fast-tracked the completion of the Kozhikode airport in 1988. In fact, in 2012, as Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), he threatened to shut down operations at the same airport over safety concerns.

Speaking to The Sunday Express, he said that while multiple factors could have led to the mishap, Friday’s crash landing should “convince” people of the need to extend the runway.

This is echoed by State Higher Education Minister K T Jaleel, who is from Malappuram in which the airport falls. He said he hoped this would be an “eye-opener” and people would understand the need for land.

“We made an earnest effort to acquire land but it invited protests,” admitted Jaleel. “We hope to acquire at least 100 acres even though the Airport Authority of India has demanded 300 acres. People ask why should this airport be developed when we have three other airports in the state.’’

Read | Locals among first to help Kozhikode air crash victims

Local IUML legislator T V Ibrahim said land could be acquired if the government is determined. “They have acquired land for the national highway and GAIL pipeline. Why can’t they do it for the airport,’’ he said.

“I am from Malabar and the issue was close to my heart…(when) the survey team from AAI had gone (to identify the land), they were manhandled,” said Bhushan. A compromise was reached to extend the “runway end safety area” (RESA).

“RESA is an area at the end of the runway where the plane can sink in if it overshoots. Unfortunately, in yesterday’s accident, the speed of the aircraft was such that it went past the RESA, smashing the perimeter wall,” Bhushan said.

In 2018, the AAI extended the RESA at Kozhikode airport from 90 m, which is the minimum stipulated RESA length by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), to 240 m at both ends, recommended for the Kozhikode airport given its tabletop conditions.This, too, came at a cost.

A senior DGCA official told The Sunday Express that the extension of RESA cut the runway’s length by about 100 m in total.
Incidentally, airports across the world either built on tabletops or with water bodies at either end of a runway, are usually equipped with an “engineered material arresting system” (EMAS), which is meant to slow down the aircraft after it has overshot the runway.

The committee that probed the 2010 Air India Express crash at Mangalore airport directed AAI to increase the RESA length to 240 m at critical airports including Kozhikode, and wherever RESA was less than 240 m, it called for installing EMAS. But given that Kozhikode extended RESA to 240 m, the EMAS was not installed.