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This story is from August 9, 2020

Hardeep Puri, Manickam Tagore trade twitter barbs over Kozhikode crash

Hardeep Puri, Manickam Tagore trade twitter barbs over Kozhikode crash
NEW DELHI: A twitter war broke out between Union aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri and Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Sunday over the crash of Air India Express’s Vande Bharat flight in Kozhikode, with Tagore alleging that the aviation ministry failed to act on recommendations to install specialised aircraft decelerating systems at Kozhikode’s table-top runway.
Slamming Puri in a series of tweets, Tagore asked why Puri’s ministry and the DGCA decided to ignore the recommendation that Calicut airport wanted EMAS installed at end of the runway.
“An Engineered Materials Arresting System uses a specially installed surface which quickly stops any aircraft that moves onto it. EMAS may be installed at the end of some runways to reduce the extent, and associated risks, of any overrun off the end of the runway! Why to ignore?” he added.
Recommendations for the installation of the EMAS was made in 2010 after a similar air crash in Mangalore. However, the proposal was rejected on grounds that the 100 crores worth imported technology was unviable.
The twitter exchange occurred followed last week’s air crash that claimed 18 lives and left many passengers injured and began on Saturday morning with Tagore questioning MoS V Muraleedharan’s deployment at the crash site, instead of aviation minister Hardeep Puri.
After Congress MPs Shashi Tharoor, Ravneet Singh Bittu and Tagore each raised different questions pertaining to the air crash, Puri, while referring to Tagore as a “self-styled expert”, advised him to wait for the statutory inquiry. “I would advise all those who are looking for a few columns of media space that we should wait for the outcome of the statutory enquiry and then visit the issue with facts. Instant Civil Aviation Safety expertise by self- styled experts should better be avoided,” he said.

The exchange continued with Tagore pressing in his right to question the minister both as MP and member of the parliamentary consultative committee on civil aviation. “Mr Puri, as MP & member of the consultative committee for civil aviation, I can’t imagine a people’s rep taking offence to a serious concern. A tragic air accident (occurred) & lives were lost. You should be off social media right now, attending to the tragedy at hand. Be open to scrutiny (sic),” Tagore said.
Tagore was a member of the parliamentary consultative committee on civil aviation between 2009 and 2014 and again from October 2019, when the committee was reconstituted. Puri is the chairman of the committee.
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