New Delhi: The demand to restore the operation of wide-bodied aircraft at Kozhikode airport in Kerala that was suspended following the Air India Express crash on August 7 last year, will depend on the report by a nine-member committee that will be submitted in two months, said government sources.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation has set up a nine-member committee, headed by Secretary Pradeep Singh Kharola, to study the 43 recommendations by the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) on the accident and submit its final report in 60 days.
Sources aware of the development said the committee will look into the feasibility of operating wide-bodied aircraft and suggest measures to operate them. "The operations of wide-bodied aircraft will remain suspended at the airport until the final report comes out and the final decision to resume the wide-body aircrafts will be taken by the aviation regulator DGCA," a source said.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had August 11 last year temporarily barred wide-body aircraft from Kozhikode airport, four days after an Air India Express flight from Dubai carrying 190 people skidded off a wet runway killing at least 17 people.
Also read: Kozhikode plane crash: Pilot's over-confidence led to complacency, says report
Before the Kozhikode plane crash, Saudi Arabian airlines and Air India were operating wide-bodied aircraft at the Kozhikode airport. The operations of wide-bodied aircraft was banned in Kozhikode airport from May 2015 following the court of inquiry report on the Air India Express Boeing 737 crash in Mangaluru in May 2010. The wide-bodied aircraft service resumed at the airport in 2018 after safety clearance by DGCA.
According to the AAIB probe report, the pilot's non-adherence to the standard operating procedure is the probable cause of the Air India Express plane crash at the Kozhikode airport last year but the role of systematic failures as a contributory factor cannot be overlooked it accident.
Among the recommendations, the AAIB panel asked for installation of runway centre line light for maintaining directional control by flight crew during adverse weather, widening the airport road which was found having sharp turns that affect the speed of emergency vehicles, including CFTs and overall response time during exigencies. It also recommended ensuring periodic surveillance of lights at critical table top runways, with increased surveillance during monsoons.
After the AAIB report on the Kozhikode plane crash, Abdussamad Samadani, MP from Malappuram Lok Sabha constituency, in a letter to Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that as the cause of accident is not found to be related to runway or other infrastructure inadequacies, the operation of wide-body aircraft should be allowed from the airport.
