Blame focusing on pilot after jet slides off wet runway in India
NEW DELHI — The sky had turned black.
Rain smeared the windows. Air India Express Flight 1344 was in flight, roaring through a thunderstorm toward the city of Kozhikode’s tabletop runway, which has a sudden drop-off at its end and was known to be potentially dangerous.
The pilot, a decorated military flyer, circled the airport once, then again. With visibility so bad, he radioed the control tower to switch runways.
On his second attempt at landing Friday night, he apparently hit Runway 10 too late — more than a half-mile into the 1.6-mile strip — and with the wind at his back, which was exactly the scenario that Indian aviation experts had warned against.
“All the flights that land on Runway 10 in tail wind conditions in rain are endangering the lives of all on board,” said a report submitted to India’s civil aviation authorities in 2011.
The plane, a Boeing 737 returning to southern India from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, slid off the wet runway, tumbled down a hillside and split in half. Indian officials say 18 people, including both pilots, were killed and that more than 150 people were injured.
The plane was carrying 190 people. Rescue crews, including many villagers, rushed to the crash site within minutes and pulled people out. The plane apparently never caught fire; the relentless rain may have dampened any sparks.
Survivors said they knew something was wrong the instant the wheels hit the ground.
“The plane landed at such a high speed and then braked really hard,” said Latheesh Muttooly, who was sitting by a window. “There’s usually a jerk when you land, but this was much harder, and then suddenly the plane started going faster.”
The overhead bins burst open. Heavy pieces of luggage fell on people’s heads.
“The next thing I heard was a loud crashing sound, the loudest sound I’ve ever heard,” Muttooly said.
His face smashed into the seat back in front of him, splitting open his chin. He was dazed.
“When I opened my eyes and looked around,” he said, “there was only one row in front of me.”
The front of the plane had torn off.
With the crash investigation just starting, Indian aviation officials are already beginning to pin the blame on the pilot, not the runway.
“The basic problem, as we understand it in this incident, is that on a runway of 8,500 feet, the plane landed after crossing one-third of the strip, beyond 3,000 feet,” said Arun Kumar, India’s director general of civil aviation.
“What normally happens under such conditions is that the pilot does a go-round and either tries to land again or not land at all, given the weather conditions. Touchdown must happen within the first 500 feet of the strip.
“The rules of aviation are too well laid out,” Kumar added. “Either the pilot goes around or should not have landed at all.”
On Saturday, officials said they had found the aircraft’s black box. Most of the surviving passengers remained in more than a dozen hospitals. Indian media reported that after some had tested positive for the coronavirus, they were not allowed to leave the hospitals.