Kozhikode plane crash: All you need to know about 'tricky' tabletop runways

The Kozhikode airport in Kerala has a tabletop runway and is operated by the Airports Authority of India (AAI)

At least 18 people were killed and many injured when the Air India Express flight from Dubai with 190 onboard overshot the Kozhikode airport’s runway — a tabletop runway, while landing in heavy rains and fell 35 feet down a slope and broke into two portions on Friday night. The pilot-in-command Captain Deepak Sathe and his co-pilot Akhilesh Kumar were among those who lost their lives.

The crash at Kozhikode brought back bitter memories of the flight accident in Mangaluru in 2010. Mangaluru airport is also built on tabletop.