Runway Friction at Kerala Airport Was Not Tested Before Air India Flight Crash-Landed

Runway friction testing was not done at the Karipur airport near Kozhikode on Friday where an Air India Express passenger plane overshot, killing at least 18 people. Sources told News18 that a friction testing vehicle was brought from Chennai, however, it could not be used before the flight crash-Landed.

A friction tester measures friction on airports runways, taxiways and highways. The system runs through a measuring wheel, which is mechanically geared to one of the rear main wheels of a base car. Such a device is considered important, especially at tabletop airport runways like the one in Calicut and Mangalore.

The Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 onboard overshot the tabletop runway at Kozhikode airport on Friday night while landing in heavy rains and fell into a valley 35 feet below and broke into two.

Air traffic control sources said it’s the pilot’s call on whether to land under such conditions while adding that the landing was beyond the touchdown point.

DGCA chief Arun Kumar, meanwhile, said it is too early to tell whether the accident was a result of a technical fault or human error.

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Kumar said the tabletop runway at the Karipur airport was 8000 feet long, which is sufficient for a Boeing 737 to land. The aircraft landed 3000 feet from the beginning of the runway at the Kozhikode airport before breaking up into two pieces.

The Kozhikode airport in Kerala has a table-top runway and is operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI). Generally, table-top runways are constructed on a hilly or an elevated terrain.