Before crash in Kozhikode, another plane struggled to land, ATC cleared a take-off
Of the 15 flights that landed in, or took off from Kozhikode on August 7 ahead of the ill-fated aircraft that overshot the runway, two could hold vital clues for investigators.
An hour and 40 minutes before Air India Express Flight IX1344 crashed, an ATR72-600 turboprop aircraft operated by IndiGo faced difficulty approaching Kozhikode on a flight from Bengaluru, but managed to land safely at 5.58 pm.
And soon after IX1344 failed to land on its first approach, air traffic control (ATC) cleared for take-off an Air India aircraft bound for Delhi — an indication that the crew of the Boeing 737-800 flying in from Dubai did not raise an alarm over weather or other conditions at the airport at the time.
