Two disasters have struck Kerala in two days. A landslide happened at Pettimudi, Idukki district and the plane accident occurred at Calicut Airport, Kozhikkodu district in Kerala in which many people have died, many people were seriously injured and many people are still missing.
The landslide occurred at the Nayamakkad Tea estate at Pettimudy, near Rajamala in Idukki district. Four line quarters of tea garden workers were buried under the debris as a hill nearly 3 km away from the quarters slid down. 22 people have been killed and about 50 others are missing. It happened at 10.45 pm on Thursday. However, due to heavy rain and disconnection of electricity and telephone communication, the news about the natural disaster emerged after 6 am on Friday.
In addition to Idukki, Wayanad and
Friday witnessed another disaster and it was manmade. 18 people including the pilot and co-pilot were killed and 153 injured when the Dubai-Calicut Air India Express flight skidded at 7.40 pm at Calicut International Airport. The aircraft, while landing, failed to hold on the runway due to bad weather condition and torrential rain fell into a ravine and broken into two pieces.
Digital Flight Data Recorder & Cockpit Voice Recorder of the ill-fated aircraft have been retrieved. Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) is conducting investigations.
A court of enquiry report by a former Indian Air Force chief BN Gokhale in 2011 after the 2010 Air India Express crash in Mangalore had cautioned the dangers of table top runways. India has three table top runways at Mangalore, Kozhikode and Lengpui in Mizoram.
Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official stated that the visibility was 2,000 meters amid heavy rain. The flight after landing at runway 10 overshot and broke down in two pieces.