‘All we know is that the touchdown was late’

Directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar said the tabletop runway at Calicut Airport, where an Air India Express plane crashed killing 18 people including both pilots on Friday, was long enough for the aircraft, but a late touchdown may have caused the plane to overshoot the runway. Edited excerpts from an interview to Sunetra Choudhury:

What do we know about what happened with the Air India Express flight?

We don’t know much, the actual investigation is on. They have got the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder so they have to open them and they have to study the transcripts and also the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) transcripts which they have obtained. All we know at this point of time is that the touchdown was late. That is the ATC information, more than 3,000 feet. Actually, if it was 3,000 feet, 4,000 {feet} or 2,000 {feet} -- that will come out once everything is decoded. It was a 9,000 feet runway, which is a fairly long runway as I have been saying all along. It’s not a small runway, for example like Patna which is just 6,000 feet. It is a Code D runway and this is a Code C aircraft and the grading is like B, C, D where D is bigger to C .... it is fit enough or more than fit enough for a Code C aircraft.

So you are saying length of the runway was big enough?

This runway was fit for bigger aircraft, so a smaller type of aircraft cannot complain of the length of the runway...if you touch down late on any runway, suppose it’s a 12,000 feet runway, and you touchdown at 8,000 feet, you can have problems.

Can you explain how it happens?

We can only say that it was a late touchdown and obviously the aircraft has skidded and gone beyond the runway and the safety area. That is also a big rectangle- -240 by 90 square metres. The aircraft should have stopped there but it has gone beyond that .... With the impact, it has broken into three parts. It could have gone even further, it could have been worse. All these facts, the real truth will come out once the investigation is done by AAIB (Air Accidents Investigating Branch)...they can find fault with the DGCA too or with airport operator.

Who is heading that?

Mr Aurobindo Handa, an air force officer who is currently based out of India. He’s a joint secretary rank officer who is heading that bureau.

You say that it isn’t a small runway but some experts have pointed out the problem with Calicut was that as a tabletop, there were problems?

You don’t do away with tabletop runways. There are tabletop runways across the world. I reiterate and repeat, it is not an Indian innovation .... in the

US or Europe, all over the world, there are tabletop runways. So what do you do with them? You design flight procedures to navigate your aircraft on these runways. These are very well prescribed and defined procedures. So this isn’t an issue and again 9,000 feet is a fairly long runway.

Some experts have said that they have pointed out issues with the airport to the DGCA in 2010 and 2011. I know you weren’t in DGCA then but you must have read up on them.

Yes, I have. The simple point is that at that time...the runway and safety area was not adequate. One of their recommendations was to make these areas appropriate. For that, the dimensions were 240X90 metres. The airport authority, after due deliberations, carved out this safety area...all the recommendations that were there have been complied with...

So all the recommendations that were given by the experts were incorporated?

Most of them. Only some weren’t for various reasons.