"It was known and generally understood that the Mangalore airport and the runway is a very tricky runway and the skills of pilot would be put to maximum test while landing in Mangalore."
This is what External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today said about the Mangalore airport.He was reacting to the Air India Express crash which resulted in the death of 158 passengers.Earlier today an Air India Express plane from Dubai with 166 people on board crashed after it overshot the runway while landing at Mangalore airport.
He was also quoted as saying that "Our worst fears have come true"..!!
I am not sure that the 166 passengers on-board that aircraft which was to land safely in Mangalore knew that 'Mangalore airport and the runway is a very tricky runway and the skills of pilot would be put to maximum test while landing in Mangalore'..!!
Atleast I never heard any thing like this before..
If landing in Mangalore Airport was such risky,I am damn sure that many of those passengers and indeed many who had used the Mangalore Airport till today,would have avoided it and used alternative options.
The blame for the crash may be ultimately laid on the Pilot,but the authorities cannot escape the fact that an Airport which was such risky was made operational and what's more people were not informed of the risk.
About Mangalore Airport (courtesy a news item in rediff today ) :
The Mangalore airport is considered to be one of the toughest to land since it is located on top of a hill and the runway landing approaches extreme edges on the sides of the hill and hence it is called table-top. The edges of the hill drop into the valley from a height of 300 feet with a short distance of 500 metres on the east side of the runway and 83 metres to 25 metres on the western side. A big disadvantage here is that the runway is not level and the height varies between 90 metres to 83 metres from eastern to western side.
The Mangalore International Airport formerly known as the Bajpe airport was inaugurated in the year 1951. Situated at a distance of 20 kilometres from the city, this airport handles 700 flights at an average every year.
International operations at this airport commenced in the year 2006 and the Air-India Express was the first to commence operations here.
Hope with this tragic accident people are adequately warned and hopefully those who are careful could opt out using this Airport till the authorities does some thing to make it a risk-free Airport..
No comments:
Post a Comment