Airport at Padubidri was a safer bet: Netizens

Mangalore is in shock,but frequent fliers to Bajpe are petrified.

Mangalore is in shock,but frequent fliers to Bajpe are petrified. While the city mourns the death of those who took the ill-fated IX-812 to return home from Dubai on May 22,there is a palpable sense of fear among the Diaspora on having to use the table-top Bajpe airport in future.

Many feel the tragedy could have been avoided had the government stuck to the initial plan of developing the Mangalore airport at Padubidri near Udupi. The late T A Pai (former railway minister) had tried to impress upon the Central government in 1975 to establish an international airport near Padubidri. That failed,thanks to the politics of those days. That would have given a good airport to Mangalore, says Shenoy R in response to a report on the crash in mangalorean.com. He also fears that Bajpe will now lose traffic to Kozhikode down south,though the airport in north Kerala is also a table-top.

Capt Cornelio from Udupi,in local blog daijiworld.com,says,People who opposed to make Padubidri a flat ground as Mangalore airport are responsible for this tragedy. Bajpe is still a very dangerous airport…

In fact,till about 1980,the Centre was considering a plan to shift the Mangalore airport from Bajpe to Padubidri. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had even surveyed land in Kanchinadka and Nandikur in Palimar gram panchayat and submitted a proposal to the Centre,says reports in news blogs. Though it wasnt a plain terrain,it could have been levelled. This area was best suited for airport, the AAI report had said. The proposal was dropped owing to political opposition.

Anand Dsilva from UAE,a frequent user of Bajpe airport,says similar incidents in other airports dont have such catastrophic consequences because of the extended airfield. In this case there is no scope as there is a steep valley and not much thought was given to it hoping the pilots will make landing at the right place.

Nasrulla Sultan from Dubai,in daijiworld.com,asks if the airport was fully functional at the time of the crash. A month back when I boarded the flight at Dubai we had to stay in the flight for 25 minutes. Later,the pilot announced that Mangalore airport opens after 6 am. we had to delay taking off. So when the flight landed on May 22 at 6.02 am,were all the air traffic controlling staff present to guide the pilot? This has to be checked.