THE HOLY CROSS COLLEGE IN CALICUT KOZHIKODE

When the weather gets cold in Bangalore  I  take a break for a day or so and visit the city of Calicut or Kozhikode to enjoy warmth and the hot afternoon sun which is stimulating. There are exceptional A/C buses that ply on this route and there are decent budget hotels in Calicut also called Kozhikode in the vernacular.

When at Calicut I toyed with the idea of visiting HOLY CROSS COLLEGE where my younger son Gireesh studied. This college is affiliated to the CALICUT  UNIVERSITY and is a division of HOLY CROSS Jesuit institutions run by European missionaries and is situated near the MALAYALA MANORAMA office in Nadakkavu not far from Mananchira .

To me it seemed to be a well run Educational enterprise operating from some five acre campus and has the instant looks of a Three Star Hotel in its posture with attentive and responsive staff.I went up to the third floor to meet one of the teachers who taught Gireesh. I was told by some students there are hostel facilities here.

To my understanding the overall city of Calicut can be developed on the lines of Bangalore .The only issue is that the forest gates of the Bandipur forests are closed in the night and most buses take the Manantavady route where the roads for nearly fifty kilometers is not good and bumpy.Some kind of a FLYOVER or a UNDERPASS must be considered to bypass the forests.

There are some ways in which this can be done.Over the entire lenghth of the road through the Bandipur forests erect walls on either sides some six feer high so that animals like elephants dont trespass into the road and provide broad and fairly high underpass at several points on this stretch of roads for animals to move beneath without transgressing this road. One another option would be to put a flyover over the forests in the Mysore H D Kote road so that buses can reach Manantavady via this corridor during night times reducing travel times to Calicut drastically. It is ludicrous to keep forest gates closed in the night creating waste of valuable time to all forms of Commuters.

Budget Hotel in this place: Aradhana Tourist Home;  04952302223, 04952303978, 04952302220 ; 9947665556

CALICUTCITY:PLANE CRASH AT KOZHIKODE

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ZJfgugfGs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbgXKSnRAZg

CAPTAIN DEEPAK SATHE

Animated version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHAWVVfYoc

DATE OF CRASH : 07 AUGUST  2020

TIME : 7 41  PM

FACTS OF THE MATTER 

💞   PLANE BREAKS INTO TWO PEICES

💞   TAIL PORTION INTACT BUT SLIGHTLY SEVERED FROM BODY

💞    COCKPIT CHAMBER BREAKS AWAY FROM THE FUSELAGE

💞   ORIENTATION OF THE WRECKAGE IS IN A STRAIGHT FASHION AND NOT SKEWED

💞  COCKPIT CHAMBER BADLY CRASHED DUE TO SOME HEAD ON COLLISION

💞  BOTH THE PILOTS DEAD DUE TO THE ABOVE IMPACT

💞  THE DESCENT  TRACT SEEN ON THE HILL IS SLIGHTLY SKEWED POINTING TO A         INCLINED DESCENT PATH  WITH WINGS ALMOST INTACT.

The above plane crash made sad news. The Air India Express flight had taken off from Dubai at 3:45 IST on a trip to Kozhikode also called Calicut in the state of Kerala in India. The captain of the Plane was Mr.Deepak Sathe an experienced pilot and a former fighter jet pilot of the Indian Airforce. Karipur as the airport is called is more than 30 years old and had a very fine safety record until this incident which has left many aghast. Eighteen people lost their lives and many were injured but could have been a more serious accident had it not been for the expertise it appears to me of Mr.Deepak Shinde.

The weather was inclement with incessant rains and higher tail winds on the run-way it appears to me. There are many versions to this incident and I have pieced together various versions and came to the most plausible one.

The pilot had almost landed the plane on the first instance but due to winds noted that the plane had not aligned itself on the run-way it appears to me and took-off the nearly landed plane which only a very experienced pilot like him could have done, this has seen him travel towards the Western Ghats into kozhikode city. What happened thereafter is unclear. His inability to land the plane was possibly due to winds at that time dis-orienting the plane. He has reverted back into the open air of the sea which is more safe from any un-expected tall or hilly structures and this time tried to land the plane from the other side of the run-way so that the obtrusive effects of the wind could be mitigated. He has come out of kozhikode city into the seas it appears to me and re-attempted landing from the  reverse side.

This time the alignment of the aircraft was correct  but if survivor  accounts are to be believed touched down on the run-way a little too inside or slightly too inside from the start of the run-way leading to insufficient run way for the plane to fully stall. At relatively high speed he has tried to brake in panic creating a skid  (of some twenty degree towards the right) and the plane going out of control. It appears to me had there been a fifty metre more leeway this accident could have been avoided.

The plane has descended down the runway plateau some thirty feet the descent appears to be relatively furious with the nose hitting the ground and the cock-pit chamber dis-integrating itself from the fuselage and the cockpit chamber in a free flow collides with the wall of the airport creating a crater and the collision so concentrated takes the lives of the pilot and the co-pilot. Had the cock-pit chamber not dis-integrated and collided with the wall the pilots would have survived with injuries. Through the crater left by the collision the public have poured around the Aircraft and offering help. Eighteen people lost their lives most of them possibly sitting in the front seats and the people in the rear bore the brunt of a violent shake-up leading to fractures and injuries.

It is sad such an event has happened. Ten years back a similar incident occurred in Mangalore killing most on board as the plane caught fire. Both these airports are table-top and the incident has happened during night when visibility is poor.

My observation is that the International Airport at Cannanore(Kannur) must be used to land any air-plane coming from the Gulf which has some complexity in landing procedures istead of resorting to audacious procedures putting lives in peril. Planes to Mangalore or Kozhikode facing any form of  landing difficulty must be routed to Cannanore airport for a brief stall and let to proceed to their destinations only after the conditions are brighter and the last thing anyone likes to see is  a large plane tossed down the hill like a toy creating disastrous results. 

CALICUTCITY:Kapad beach near Kozhikode Calicut

Kappad beach is the exact location they say where Vasco Da Gama touched the Indian soil after a nine month voyage from Portugual in 1498 (May 20 1498) landing at the beach with a reasonable crowd from his three sea carriers.

Kappad is some eighteen kilometers or so from the Kozhikode (Calicut) town.It would be ideal to take one of those buses going to Telicherry and alight at a point called Pookad and hire local conveyance to this point.

There is a Monument erected here to commemorate this journey and the step taken by Vasco Da Gama. The monument as of  now is few meters inland the sea having withdrawn from the land considerably over the last few centuries and this monument is now set adjacent to a housing locality.The beach is worth visiting and the sea and its vast expanse can be felt at this place.

Few hundred meters to the North of this point is another beach with a large rocky formation and some like to visit this place and feel the Sea from this rock.