India’s air safety regulator plans to conduct special audits of airports across the country affected by heavy rain, the watchdog’s chief told Reuters, days after an air crash killed 18 people and raised questions about safety.
An Air India Express plane with 190 people on board, overshot the rain-soaked runway at an airport near the southern city of Kozhikode on Friday. The Boeing 737 landed in tailwind, skid off the runway and broke in half.
“We will conduct additional checks at major, busy airports across India that are affected by the monsoon rains,” Arun Kumar, head of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said in an interview late on Monday.
“We will review everything – the condition of the runway, its incline, the lighting as well as drainage.”
Kumar said the special audit was over and above the DGCA’s routine checks and could cover a dozen airports including those in Chennai, Kochi, Trivandrum as well as Mumbai, all of which get heavy annual rains.
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