A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Kerala High Court seeking immediately closure of the Kozhikode International Airport and an independent, open court-monitored open inquiry into the plane crash.
An Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 people, including a six-member crew, overshot the tabletop runway during landing at the Kozhikode airport in heavy rain on 7 August, killing 18 people, including the pilots.
The petition filed by Yeshwanth Shenoy on Friday demanded a criminal investigation into the cause of the plane crash by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
In his plea, he claims that the air crash was similar to the air crash of Mangalore that had occurred on 22 May 2010. He alleged that warnings flagged by authorities have been deliberately ignored and several norms are being violated because of a failure of a system of checks and balances, reported Live Law.
He pointed out that no corrective measures had been taken despite Justice VR Krishna Iyer writing several times to the then Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India regarding the state of aviation safety.
He alleged that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had been granting licenses to airports without them complying with the prescribed Standard and Recommended Practices and the authorities had been callous with banning the use of Boeing 737 Max aircrafts.
Some of the other allegations listed were unqualified pilots being given a flying license, aircrafts being maintained by unauthorised engineers and no implementation of Duty Time limitations for pilots, maintenance engineers and cabin crew.
The PIL has demanded an inquiry headed by a judge.
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