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Investigators examine black box from Air India Express crash

Indian investigators have begun examining the black box of a Boeing-737 that overshot a runway on its second attempt, killing 18 people in the country’s worst aviation accident in a decade.

The Air India Express plane, which was repatriating Indians stranded in Dubai due to the coronavirus pandemic, overshot the runway at Calicut International Airport in heavy rain near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday.

The aircraft fell into a valley and broke in half.

Anil Kumar, head of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation, said the country would open the recovered transcripts to international investigators, as well as manufacturer Boeing.

“Only after conducting a thorough and unbiased probe, can we tell what exactly happened,” he said.

The 2700-metre runway at the airport is known as a “table-top”, an aviation term for runways with steep drops at one or both ends.

They leave little room for error should a pilot overshoot the runway, either through human error or mechanical failure.

Late on Saturday, Mr Kumar told CNN-News18 the pilot made an aborted landing attempt into a headwind and then made a second approach with a tail wind, landing 1000 metres down the runway.

An air traffic control official familiar with the crash confirmed this version of events, adding it is unusual to attempt a landing at the airport with a tailwind, which is typically used for takeoffs.

“The length of the runway in Calicut is around 2700 metres and the plane touched the ground after crossing 1000 metres of the length, leaving less room to bring the aircraft to a halt,” an official source told Reuters.

“It was windy and rainy and the runway surface was wet. In such instances the weather is dynamic.

“An aircraft typically lands and departs in a headwind as a tailwind increases the plane’s speed.”

-AAP

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