Kozhikode Air Crash brings back memories of Mangaluru Air Crash: Why tabletop runways are dangerous?

An Air India Express plane with 190 on board from Dubai overshot Karipur’s table top runway and dropped about 35 feet into a gorge on Friday, Aug 7. Officials said 20 people, including the pilot Captain Deepak Vasant Sathe and the co-pilot have died in the accident and over 140 more are injured

Sources claim, the plane continued to run at a high speed and skidded off the tabletop runway when the pilots tried to stop it. The regulator said after landing at Runway 10, the plane continued running till the end of the runway and fell into the valley and broke into two portions.

This is not the first air crash which involved tabletop runway. There are three tabletop airports in India from where scheduled flights operate. They are Mangalore, Kozhikode and Lengpui.

Ten years back, Mangaluru witnessed one of the country’s worst air crash, an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Mangalore crashed while landing at the Mangalore airport at 6:05 am on May 22, 2010.

A Boeing 737-800, the aircraft, with 166 people on board, overshot the runway and crashed into the valley before bursting into flames. The crash killed 158 people and left eight survivors.

The pilot received no signal from the air traffic controller to land the aircraft due to adverse weather conditions. Due to some ambiguity, the pilot flew several laps over the runway. He descended to land but had passed over much of the runway and touched down when only 25% of it was remaining. The front wheels came off and the aircraft stopped right at the edge of the cliff. The wings were already on fire. The aircraft was trapped on three large stones with one poking into the aircraft.

It is still considered to be one of the worst aviation disaster of the country.

One common aspect in both the crashes are the tabletop runways. They are located on the top of a plateau or hill with one or both ends adjacent to a steep precipice which drops into a deep gorge.

Tabletop runways are known for being difficult to land an aircraft even for the best of the commercial pilots. Pilots must be careful to stop the plane at the right distance. Also, during rainy season, situation becomes worse and often poses challenge for the pilots to understand the correct landing spot, which leads to plane overshooting the runway

However, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has ordered a detailed inquiry of the Kozhikode Air crash.