Karipur: The services of large aircraft have been temporarily suspended at the Calicut International Airport in Karipur following the crash of the Air India Express flight from Dubai on Friday night.
The restriction will apply to aircraft in the ‘E’ class.
Currently, Saudi Arabian Airlines and Air India are the carriers operating large flights at the airport.
The Saudi Arabian Airlines flight from Jeddah scheduled to land in Kozhikode on Monday evening will be diverted to the Kochi international airport, the airlines officials announced.
It has been learnt that the restriction on large aircraft will be in place till the detailed report on the Air India Express mishap is released.
The crashed Air India Express belonged to the smaller 'C' class. Such aircraft need 1,600 metres of runway to land; the Karipur airport’s runway is 2,700 metres long.
Services of large aircraft to the airport resumed two years ago after the runway was renovated. Qatar Airways recently got the permission to operate large aircraft at the airport. Emirates was also preparing to launch such a service.
115 passengers in treatment; 14 critical
The 115 passengers, who were injured in the Air India Express plane crash at Calicut International Airport, are undergoing treatment at various hospitals. Of them, 14 are said to be in critical condition.
Officials said 57 people have been discharged from various hospitals so far.
Only two passengers of the ill-fated flight have been found to be COVID positive so far, Malappuram District Collector K Gopalakrishnan said. One of the dead passengers had tested positive and the other passenger with the coronavirus is undergoing treatment, he said.
The health department has said it will take care of all the hospital bills. It has instructed private hospitals to not hand over the bills directly to the passengers under treatment.
The IX-1344 Air India Express flight from Dubai that crashed on Friday night had 184 passengers on board. The accident killed 18 people, including the two pilots.
The flight overshot the runway, likely due to adverse weather conditions, fell into a deep gorge and broke into two. Locals rushed to the spot, evacuated most of the passengers and rushed them to hospital before rescue services arrived.
