On a windy and rainy day, 8th August 2020, a flight operating from Gulf to Calicut / Kohzikode met with an accident while attempting to land.
The Boeing carrying more than 200 people failed to make a safe landing at the table top airport of Calicut. The flight commanded by Ex-Air Force Test Pilot Sathe failed to land in its third attempt at landing on the air strip.
The plane broke into two pieces as it ran off the hill top and fell into the gorge at the end of the run way. At last count 18 lives have been lost including the flight commander and first officer.
What happened that night will become clear only after the conversation in the cockpit and with the ATC becomes known after the Flight Data Recorder is decoded and the Cockpit voice recorder data becomes available.
But the criminal negligence of the Civil Aviation Ministry stands out in the whole incident.
A similar accident took place at a different air port 10 years ago on 22nd May 2010. While attempting to land at Mangalore, another flight went down and in that accident all on board were killed as the plane caught fire and everyone perished due to burn injuries and smoke inhalation as the plane fell into a ravine at the end of the runway, just like the current Kohzikode accident.
This time though the experience of the command crew seems have saved the day with limited casualties. The captain it seems had turned off the engines just before the plane went down the gorge at the end of the runway. Perhaps there wasn’t enough fuel left in the tanks too to do much damage.
The command crew made two aborted attempts to land, thus one can’t say that they were half asleep or not in their senses. On the contrary it is clear that the crew must have been in very heightened alert state trying to bring down the plane and ensuring the safety of passengers of the flight.
Also it was not the first time that Captain Sathe was landing at this airport. He had already landed here more than twenty times earlier and was well aware of the lay of the land.
Yet, he failed to land under these trying conditions and was not directed to try and land at another airport may have a tale to tell.
Why did the ATC not divert the flight? What were the weather conditions, wind speed, etc. will become clear in the inquiry that has been initiated but there are fears that no one will be held responsible in the end and it may be blamed on pilot error and the case closed, until we have another tragedy at another table top airport somewhere else in the country.
The question that begs an answer is why nothing was done after the Mangalore airport crash? What were the findings of that crash and what were the recommendations of the committee that probed that crash? Where is the action taken report on the recommendations of that committee?
One minister almost immediately made a statement blaming the captain without even waiting for any investigation. Is that fair on his part? The command crew perished in the landing, which could be called a brave act or a foolish act depending on how one looks at the situation. If the command crew was aware of the peril of attempting a third landing on a switched run way other than the first two attempts then could it not have gone to a nearby airport? Were they short on fuel to make that attempt?
That the command crew made a third attempt and then ended up killing themselves and yet saving almost 90% of the passengers speaks volumes about their supreme sacrifice.
And the way the locals reacted to the tragedy set an example for the country. People of Mallapuram rushed to the rescue even before the airport rescue teams could respond and moved people into hospitals as quickly as possible.
The committee that went into Mangalore crash had recommended that the airstrip be lengthened but that recommendation still has not been carried out 10 years after the crash.