Kozhikode plane crash: Pilot had aborted first attempt, reversed direction of landing in the second

With the visibility dropping to near zero in Friday evening’s heavy downpour, the pilot of the Air India Express flight had made an unsuccessful first attempt to land at the Calicut International Airport from the standard East to West direction. This was aborted at the last moment before the second attempt was made.

Airport sources told DH that the second landing attempt was made from the reverse West to East direction (10 landing). But due to the poor visibility, the Boeing 737 aircraft touched down only towards the half-way mark of the 9,000ft runway.

Survivors have recalled that the flight had landed at a very high speed. The Air Traffic Control (ATC) sources confirmed this and said the aircraft crossed even the 240m runway safety area before falling 30-35 m into the valley down.