KATHMANDU, Jan 16: Despite the government's efforts to reduce air accidents, the expected progress has not been achieved. Although investigation committees are formed time and time again and reports prepared and submitted with recommendations, the number of air accidents has increased instead in recent years.

In terms of human casualties, the plane crash of Yeti Airlines in Pokhara on Sunday is the biggest in the history of Nepal’s domestic flights. All 72-people on board the Yeti Airlines aircraft with call sign 9N-ANC flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara are feared dead as there is almost no chance of finding any survivors from the crash site which lies in a deep gorge. 

Ghanshyamraj Acharya, the representative and official of the Airline Operators Association of Nepal, says that the accident of the ATR series, which is considered relatively safe, is unfortunate in itself.

He said that small planes have been involved in frequent accidents in Nepal but this is the first time that an ATR has been involved in an accident. It has been said that the ATR series aircraft have been brought into operation considering the geographical aspects of Nepal, the capacity of the airports and the number of passengers. According to Acharya, the ATR series aircraft informs about any technical problem in the engine well in advance.

Experts say that if the report given by the investigation committee to be formed after the air crash is not implemented, such incidents will repeat again. The government has repeatedly formed high-level investigation committees for investigations after each air accident. Those committees have prepared reports and made recommendations for implementation. But due to failure to pay attention to the implementation of the reports, such incidents have been recurring in Nepal. The accident involving Yeti Airlines aircraft that took place Sunday morning in Pokhara for domestic flights is big in itself.

The government has formed a five-member committee of inquiry to find out the truth about the plane crash of Yeti Airlines in Pokhara.

An emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers held at the Prime Minister's residence, Baluwatar, formed the committee to identify the cause of the accident and to submit a report with recommendations to be adopted to prevent such accidents from recurring in the future.

Former secretary Nagendra Ghimire is the coordinator of the committee. The members of the committee are aviation experts Deepak Prakash Bastola (retired captain) and Sunil Thapa (retired captain) and air maintenance engineer Ekraj Jung Thapa. Budhisagar Lamichhane, joint secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, is the member secretary of the committee.

The committee has been given a period of 45 days to submit its report. The committee has been given the responsibility of identifying the cause of the accident and submitting a report with suggestions for actions to be taken to prevent such accidents in the future. 

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has also been facilitating to reduce the risk of accidents by paying special attention to air safety issues. The problem is increasing instead of decreasing. Due to the continuous rise in air disasters, stakeholders have been demanding a long-term effort to solve such problems in one way or another.

After the plane crash of Yeti Airlines, interest and concern about air safety has increased. There have been various suspicions and speculations. However, experts say that the government has formed a high-level committee and its report is awaited for definitive answers.

According to Triratna Manandhar, the former Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the latest accident is a misfortune for Nepal's aviation sector. He said that the cause of the accident should be investigated and suggestions implemented. 

“This in itself is a big and unfortunate incident,” Manandhar said, adding that the government should seek a solution to this problem after ascertaining the facts and reasons behind the crash. He also suggested studying the condition of our sky, the technical conditions of the aircraft and the condition of the staff working in air traffic control.

 
• air_accidents
 
• investigation_committees
 
• reports