Tabletop runway calicut - calicut plane crash | what is a tabletop runway?

The Air India Express flight crash on Friday brings back the memories of the 2010 air crash that too occurred after the plane overshot the runway at the tabletop airport in Mangalore.
So lets check what is a tabletop runway?
Tabletop runways are often constructed by excavating the peaks of hills to create what is known as a "tabletop".
Such runways have steep drops at one or both ends, increasing the possibility of injuries and fatalities if pilots under or overshoot their approach, either through human error or mechanical failure.
This type of runway creates an optical illusion which requires a very precise approach by the pilot.
They are most commonly found in mountainous areas where flat land is scarce, or in low-lying areas like Kozhikode where space is at a premium or there is fear of waterlogging at ground level. India has three table-top runways from where flights operate.These include Calicut International Airport, Mangalore International Airport, Karnataka and Lengpui Airport, Mizoram. Other examples include the international airport of Nepal in mountainous Kathmandu.
Apart from Karipur airport, the newly constructed Kannur airport also has tabletop runway. However, pilots have pointed out that the length of the runway at Kannur airport can nullify all the limitations of tabletop runways.
Now we can take a look at what happened to Kozhikode's tabletop runway.
The plane crash at Kozhikode is the second such incident which involved a table-top runway, the first being at the Mangalore airport in 2010.
The tabletop runway at Kozhikode is around 2700 metres long, shorter than the 4430 metres runway in New Delhi, though it is long enough for narrowbody aircraft like the Boeing-737 to land.
The Air India Express flight with 190 on board overshot and fell 50 metres off the end of the runway at the Kozhikode airport in treacherous conditions on Friday, breaking into two, making it one of the deadliest commercial aviation disasters in the country in nearly 10 years. The crash occurred around 7.40pm, when it was raining. Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said it was raining heavily when pilots of the Boeing 737 plane from Dubai tried to land. The regulator said after landing at Runway 10, the plane continued running till the end of the runway and fell into the valley and broke into two portions. According to a playback on flight-tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane circled the airport twice before attempting to land. In its second instance, it aborted the attempt with 2000 feet to go before the crash landing.
There are some Safety issues at Kozhikode airport.
Civil Aviation Safety Advisory Council had also warned the authorities 10 years back that Kozhikode runway was very risky for landing during rains and harsh weather conditions.
The Kozhikode airport is located on a hill with limited space at the end of the runway, and several international airlines had stopped flying bigger aircraft including Boeing 777 and Airbus SE A330 jets into the city due to safety issues.
The runway at Kozhikode, where the latest crash took place, doesn’t have an adequate safety mechanism, a member of the aviation regulator’s civil aviation safety advisory council had written in a letter to the government in 2011.
A ground arrestor system, similar to those maintained at Air Force bases, should be installed at table top airports to bring any skidding aircraft to a halt, an investigation report into the 2010 crash of another Air India Express jet recommended.

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