NEW DELHI: Two plane crashes at table-top runways at Mangalore and Calicut could have been averted and 174 lives would have been saved had the Union government not shelved its 2008 decision to create engineered material assistance system (EMAS) at the and of runways at the two airports, an aviation expert told the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian recalled the terrible sights of air crashes, first at Mangalore in 2010 and then in Calicut last year where the Vande Bharat Mission flight from Dubai crashed killing 16 passengers including the two pilots.
The bench told additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bhati to find out from the government whether EMAS can be done. Bhati said the government is not treating the PIL as adversarial and would get back to the court with its response on the issue.
Petitioner Rajen Mehta, an 85-year-old mechanical engineer who has worked abroad with firms expertising in preparing EMAS in shorter runways to avoid air crash-related deaths, told the SC that “The Airport Authority of India was inclined to install EMAS in the airports in Calicut, initially, and Mangalore, subsequently and had invited for proposals for both the airports, from the former employer of the Petitioner.”
“Several presentations were made to the AAI and the features, specifications and advantages of the EMAS were highlighted. In 2008, due to the extreme economic crisis, the Calicut EMAS project was put in abeyance. Thereafter, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), got involved and despite the Mangalore crash in 2010, deliberately omitted to install EMAS at these airports,” he alleged.
“The Court of Inquiry, appointed to investigate into the Mangalore crash in 2010, specifically recommended that systems like the EMAS should be installed on the runway overshoot areas, especially for table top airports like Mangalore. Despite the same, no action has been taken by the DGCA till date,” he said.
Mehta said EMAS system is an arrestor bed which uses crushable material placed at the end of a runway to stop an aircraft that overruns the runway. This crushable material generally consists of concrete blocks and stops/arrests aircraft going at a speed of 70 knots (130 kmph) or less. This is when no braking contribution from aircraft reverse thrust is considered, he said.
The petitioner said, “EMAS has been installed in more than 125 airports across the world, with more than 100 in the USA itself. The installation of EMAS would not only have saved hundreds of lives, but would have also saved crores of rupees in aircraft and aircraft equipment. There have been at least 15 incidents in the USA itself, where the EMAS has prevented accidents.”