Air India plane crash: DGCA flagged maintenance issues at Calicut airport in 2019

As the Civil Aviation Ministry announced a probe by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) in the crash landing of the Air India flight at the Kozhikode International Airport in Karipur, it has been revealed that the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had served notice to the airport over safety concerns last year in July. The notice was served after an Air India Express flight coming from Dammam had a tail strike while landing at the airport on July 2, 2019.

The Kozhikode International Airport was issued a show-cause notice following an audit from July 2 to July 5 over unsafe airport maintenance and was given 15 days to respond to the notice. The notice pointed out the excessive deposit of rubber and stagnating water on the runway. However, reportedly, the DGCA gave a go-ahead to the operation after lapses were repaired.

Kozhikode Air India Crash LIVE Updates

The show-cause notice by DGCA last year pointed out the following: 

• Excessive rubber deposit
• Cracks at runway 28 TDZ (touchdown zone) and along runway C/L marking at runway 10 TDZ
• Water stagnation of about 1.5-metre length on the area between runway edge and intermediate turn pad on runway 28
• A steep downward slope of approximately five feet depth is observed immediately after the apron behind of aircraft number 1, which needs to be levelled and graded
• Several cracks in the aircraft stand number 5
• Portion of Apron surface" of about 111 metres as damaged
• Shortage of reserve stock of 6,630 litres of Aqueous Film Forming Foam concentrate(AFFF) and 140 kg of DCP complementary agent (both are used to put out fires) at Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) station of the airport

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Kozhikode Air India plane crash

As per a statement from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, an Air India Express flight arriving in Kozhikode skid off the runway, and had a crash landing. The runway which is of the tabletop pattern was reportedly waterlogged. The incident took place amid very heavy rainfall in the area around 7:40 PM. There were 191 persons on board including two pilots and 5 cabin crew. 

Following the crash landing, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan instructed the Police and Fire Force to take urgent action. After the incident, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has also announced that the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau would conduct a formal inquiry.

The Ministry of Civil Aviation issued a statement: 

"Air India Express flight IX 1344 operated by B737 aircraft from Dubai to Calicut overshot runway at Kozhikode at 19:41 hrs tonight. No fire reported at the time of landing.  There are 174 passengers, 10 Infants, 2 pilots and 5 cabin crew onboard the aircraft. As per the initial reports, rescue operations are on and  Passengers are being taken to hospital for medical care. We will soon share the update in this regard," the Ministry stated. 

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