DGCA found various safety lapses at Calicut airport
Aviation regulator DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the director of the Kozhikode airport on July 11 last year after it found “various critical safety lapses”, officials said on Saturday.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation pointed to cracks on the runway, water stagnation and excessive rubber deposits among other lapses in its show-cause notice.
The DGCA conducted the inspection after an Air India Express flight coming from Dammam in Saudi Arabia had a “tail strike” while landing at the Calicut (Kozhikode) airport on July 2 last year, an official said.
Friday’s crash of an Air Indian Express flight from Dubai occurred a little over a year later. Th plane, with 190 people on board overshot “runway 10” at the Calicut airport in heavy rain and went down 35 feet into a gorge before breaking into two pieces, killing at least 18 people.
