Kozhikode table-top airstrip: Panel recommends cushioning runway safety area with sand
A high-level committee appointed to look into the August 2020 Kozhikode crash has recommended that the end of the 90-metre Runway End Safety Area (RESA) should be filled with sand or soil having 15cm depth to arrest an overshooting aircraft. The report was submitted to the government on February 23 and it was made public on Wednesday.
The crash involving Air India Express Boeing 737-800 accident that killed 21 people on August 7, 2020, had exposed the deficiencies of the table-top Kozhikode airport runway.
The committee led by civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal observed that the AAI should ask the local authorities for additional land so that it is filled with sand. If land was not available, then the runway length should be reduced to 2540 metres to provide RESA of 240m from the ends of the runway strip, the report said.
The Union government has set March 2023 as the deadline for implementation of the recommendations.
