2020 getting worse with another tragic accident ! | Air India Express Flight 1344

Air India Express Flight 1344 a Boeing 737 NG was a scheduled passenger flight from Dubai to Kozhikode, operated by Air India Express. On 7 August 2020 meet with a tragic accident, following multiple aborted landing attempts, the flight skidded off the runway into a  (30–35-foot) gorge, where it broke into three pieces.18 of the 100 and 90 people on board, including both pilots, were killed in the crash, making it the second most deadly accident involving Air India Express, after the 2010 Flight 812 accident in Mangaluru, which killed 158 people.

                                         

Possible Causes:

1.Weather and Airport Conditions 

 During the landing phase of the flight, Kozhikode's weather conditions were quite bad due to which the pilot had done multiple go-around procedures for the safe landing of the aircraft. A Go-around is performed when the pilot in command decides to abort the landing and come in for another attempt.

                             

Due to rains in the airport area, the runway had also become more slippery and wet which makes a landing aircraft prone to runway over - shotting and skidding. 

                                       

Also, the runway length at Kozhikode airport is quite short at around 2,860 meters long it is also a table-top runway which means there is a cliff or a gorge in any of it's sides.

When the after the fist failed approach the pilots decided to land from the other runway which was runway 10, it had been reported that runway 10 had a tailwind of ~ 10 Knots which means that there was wind blowing from its back, you generally need to avoid this as you want to go against the wind while landing which would help you break

AS PER NOW IT IS THE MOST PROMINENT CAUSE 

2.Pilot Error

There is also a possibility that the cause of this could be a mishap by the pilots, 10 years ago, there was a similar accident involving the same family of aircraft (B737), the same airline and with the same airport of origin, Dubai International, but the crash happened at Mangalore an airport with many similar characteristics as 

                                      

Kozhikode airport. It was Air India Express Flight 812, before the landing leg of the flight the Captian was taking a nap, then while the aircraft was in the final approach, the plane was in a very steep approach and very unstable, although the first officer repeatedly asked the captain to Go-around the Captian ignored his calls, when the plane landed the tries burst and due to which the plane overshot the runway and fell into the cliff before exploding into flames.

                                   

Right now the black boxes have been recovered and been sent to Delhi for the processing which will reveal the happenings in the cockpit during the crash.

                                       

3.Mechanical Failure

1. Braking Systems: As I and Feplay were debating in the comments section whether the landing gear braking systems failed due to a hydraulic failure or were manual switched off by the pilots. Well, that's a possible cause of the crash that due to a Hydraulic failure the braking systems didn't engage and the plane wasn't able to stop in time. I would like to thank Feplay to introduce this topic, this topic had almost gone over my mind.                                                                                                                           

2. Avionics: Morden planes are equipped with a feature called auto-thrust, it changes the percentage of the thrust applied automatically by analyzing the inputs from the Speed altitude and various other sensors

                                                

If the sensors are damaged the computer controlling this system will change the percentage to an improper one which might knock-off the plane from its glideslope, The glide path is the straight, sloped line the aircraft should fly in its descent from where the glide slope intersects the altitude used for approaching the FAF, to the runway touchdown zone. Or instead, the computer by itself might have malfunctioned.  

Possible Preventions:

1.Diversion: Diversion would have been the best chocie the pilot could have made to save the lives of his passengers (i am stating this assuming that he had enough fuel to divert and the weather conditions were better in the divertion airport) airport he could have diverted to was Cochin International Airport.

2.Runway End Safety Areas (RESA): In simple terms RESA is a type of cushion that is placed at the end of a runway (especially short and the tabletoped ones) to prevent over-shotting, although is it's cost is high it cas save the lives of many. Due to the rise in corruption in India, such life-saving equipment isn't implemented

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THE INVESTIGATION ISN'T OVER YET THERE ARE NEW FINDING EVERYDAY, I WILL KEEP UPDATING THIS ARTICLE FREQUENTLY