HOW DANGEROUS IS IT TO LAND AT TABLE-TOP AIRPORTS?
The Kozhikode airport, where Air India Express IX-1344 from Dubai skidded off the runway last night, is located in Malappuram district, and chiefly serves Kerala’s Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad and Kannur districts.
Since the commissioning of Kannur airport two years ago, many passengers from Kannur and Kasargod have been opting to take flights to Kannur.
Of Kerala’s four international airports, Kozhikode is the only table-top airport.
What are table tops?
Table-top airports are virtual plateaus on hilly terrain and normally have shorter runways that cannot be extended given the fact that they have sharp drops or gorges at either end.
Pilots of wide-bodied aircraft pilots have apprehensions about landing at such airports. Kozhikode also had its problems briefly when most airlines did not fly wide-bodied aircraft there.
The problem was sorted out two years ago and multiple airlines have been operating wide-bodied aircraft to Kozhikode, particularly from Gulf countries.
The fears of landing at a table-top airport were aggravated in 2010 when an Air India Express flight skidded off the end of the runway into a gorge at
Mangaluru incident
The aircraft that came in from Dubai overran the runway and fell into the hillside gorge, killing 152 passengers and six crew members. A court of inquiry report after the 2010 crash of Air India Express flight IX 812 in Mangaluru, prepared by former IAF vicechief of air staff Air Marshal B.N. Gokhale, said on table-top airports: “These airfields require extra skill and caution while carrying out flight operations” due to “the undulating terrain and constraints of space. “The hazard of undershooting and overshooting, in particular, can lead to grave situations.”