Kerala Plane Crash: A Pilot's Perspective on Risks, Tabletop Airports & Landing in Rain

<div>At around 7:40 PM on 7 August, Air-India Express flight IX-1344 with 190 passengers on board from Dubai to Kozhikode skidded off the runway of Karipur International Airport, Kerala.    <br> <br> Soon after, visuals of the wreckage filled television and social media. The mangled remains of an aircraft split in two as it continued to rain . A chaotic scene ensued with people rushing to help, hours taken to evacuate everyone. <br> <br> An unforeseen tragedy in which 18 people lost their lives, including the pilots – captain Deepak Sathe and co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar, was compounded by the fact that the passengers on board were returning home in a special flight arranged to bring back Indians stranded in other countries due to the COVID-19 pandemic. <br> <br> As the Boeing-737 aircraft touched down upon Indian soil amid heavy rainfall, it overshot the tabletop runway and fell 35 feet down the slope. <br> <br> As the investigation is underway into the how and why of the accident, the quint spoke with a former Indian Air Force fighter pilot, Group Captain Somala Srinivas, to get a pilot’s perspective on a number of important questions: Are tabletop runways dangerous? How does rain complicate landing? The decisions a pilot must make in adverse conditions and how an investigation into an incident like this is carried out.  <br> <br> <strong>Producer and Host: </strong>Sushovan Sircar</div> <div> <strong>Editor:</strong> Shelly Walia<br> <strong>Guest:</strong> Group Captain (retd) Somala Srinivas<br> <br> </div> <div> <strong>Music:</strong> Big Bang Fuzz<br> <br> </div> <div><strong>Listen to The Big Story podcast on:</strong></div> <div><br> </div> <div>Apple: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=https%3A%2F%2Fapple.co%2F2AYdLIl&amp;redir_token=G9sQMbbppKv-LEFD29gDyTmPMzt8MTU3MTM4MDU5NkAxNTcxMjk0MTk2&amp;v=xkpX1V6aUFo&amp;event=video_description">https://apple.co/2AYdLIl</a> </div> <div>Saavn: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2oix78C&amp;redir_toke