KATHMANDU: A Nepal Airlines flight that had gone to Nepalgunj to collect samples of throat swabs met with an accident while landing on Saturday.
Fortunately, no loss of lives has taken place in the incident.
However, aviation experts mention that the incident could have turned into a dangerous accident with all crew members becoming casualties but for the astute handling by the pilot.
An accident of this nature at this juncture could be very damaging, especially when the country is fighting the serious corona crisis.
The Y 12e aircraft which was involved in the accident has been ill-fated from the beginning. This is a Chinese made aircraft which has been standing idle for some time now.
In the past, the Y12e faced a crisis with no pilots to fly them.
Those trained on the aircraft refused to fly or resigned from their jobs as they preferred to fly other makes of advanced aircraft.
This left 4 of these aircraft stranded and useless. The government thus procured these aircraft without a proper assessment of their utility and acceptability among the flying fraternity.
Two of these aircraft purchased in 2014 were lying unused for five years till 2019. This is an utter waste of public money and surprisingly no one is answerable, experts said.
Another reason why the aircraft could not be used for high altitude areas is the lack of clearance for such flying by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
The aircraft had a regulatory limit, meaning that it could only fly to airports with a maximum gradient of up to 2 percent or about 1.2 degrees.
CAAN has been finding it challenging to clear the aircraft for landing at runways with a slope of more than 2 degrees. As a result, these aircraft are being used for operating on the Pokhara and Simara routes only.
This shows that the aircraft was purchased with several inadequacies and shortfalls.
And now the accident which barely saved the crew shows that the aircraft is marred with the crisis.
The government needs to take stock of the situation and not show desperation in procuring low-cost Chinese aircraft at the cost of the lives of Nepali crew and passengers, according to aviation experts.
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