Enviroment Groups believe Faulty Runway Construction caused Mangalore Plane Crash

Did the faulty construction of the second runway result in the air crash at  Mangalore  airport? Some environmental and social groups strongly believe so.

"This was no accident, but apparently the failure of officials in ensuring proper construction of the second runway at the airport resulted in the tragedy," alleged Leo F Saldanha, coordinator of Environment Support Group (ESG).

He said the Director General of Civil Aviation, Airports Authority of India, Ministry of Civil Aviation and the Karnataka government had failed to ensure that the second runway design conform to national and international standards.


To bolster his claim, Saldhana recalled that the ESG along with Vimana Nildana Vistharana Virodhi Samithi (Local Communities Alliance Against Airport Expansion), Mangalore , struggled against the expansion of the Mangalore airport during the late 1990s.

A key concern raised was that the second runway in Mangalore could not meet the standards required in dealing with an emergency, particularly during landing and takeoff. Even though alternative sites existed, Saldhana said, the authorities proceeded obstinately to expand the airport, yielding to pressure from politicians, and business, real estate and hotel lobbies that benefited immensely from an airport at Bajpe.

When the authorities failed to heed this request, a couple of public interest litigations (PILs) were filed in the High Court and the Supreme Court challenging the construction in the late 90s.

The PILs highlighted that the airport did not conform to the minimum safeguards for emergency situations, particularly during landing and takeoff, neither did it have emergency approach roads on all sides as required. This was evident during the crash on Saturday morning when the emergency rescue teams could not access the crash site due to the difficult terrain (a valley) for over an hour after the incident.

"No one in authority cared to listen to our fervent pleas. This even when we demonstrated through a variety of representations that the site chosen for expansion at Bajpe was surrounded by deep valleys on three sides of the runway and did not provide for emergency landing areas as required,'' Saldhana said.

To ensure such incidents do not recur, the ESG has demanded that the Union government order an impartial Commission of Inquiry into the reasons of this crash, especially investigating the "absolute lack of conformance" with basic runway design standards and emergency approach measures.