Nepal’s aviation safety concerns have made global headlines following the deadly Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500 aircraft crash in the Seti River gorge in Pokhara on January 15, 2023.
Following the crash, an emergency meeting of Nepal’s Council of Ministers formed a five-member inquiry commission to probe the crash.
The investigation commission formed under the leadership of former secretary Nagendra Prasad Ghimire includes retired Nepali Army Captain Deepak Prasad Bastola, retired Captain Sunil Pradhan, aircraft maintenance engineer Ekraj Jung Thapa, joint secretary at the Ministry of Civil Aviation Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane as members.
Interestingly, none of them are independent experts as they maintain close ties with the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation; the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), and other airline companies.
If the previous reports of air crashes are to be considered, the members of the probe commission constitute people having a conflict of interest aimed at suppressing the facts and errors.
There has been a trend on the part of the government of “handpicking” members of the probe commission with the intent to suppress the truth which ultimately leads to nowhere.
To recall the nature of the previous such reports, the commission of inquiry has been a formality rather than a fair investigation of such aircraft accidents.
So far, team members in the investigation commission in Nepal’s aircraft accidents are neither trained nor have received any special training on such issues. They do not have any close ties with relevant authorities or to say it practically, they even do not even follow the ICAO manual properly.
It should be noted that accountability of the related company and corrupt CAAN officers should come under investigation to find out the truth and ensure accountability of such reports.
If any investigation fails to secure accountability and get to the root cause is a breach of the right of the people’s rights. Therefore, observers say investigation needs to generate significant accountability and the role to ensure safety in the future and fulfill its credibility.
On the other hand, the government gives a deadline to the investigation commissions without comprehending the aspects of an investigation, which might even take a longer time than the stipulated timeframe.
There are instances that the commissions do not even hand over the report within the deadline, and even if they did, the government would not bother to implement their recommendation.
Aviation companies cannot get immune and can even go bankrupt due to high penalties and even the government authorities will be put behind bars.
Moreover, the detailed study of the probe commission is never transparent. The commission’s formal work, report and suggestions have never been implemented because of which such accidents keep on happening in Nepali skies.
Independent experts suspect that the commissions do not bring out the truth since they make money from air service companies and corrupt CAAN officials.
What has been seen in the past is that the commissions have a readymade conclusion of putting all blame on the dead pilots (often termed as ‘human error’) or the weather for air accidents.
Therefore, it would not be unfair to say that Nepal’s aviation accident inquiry is a mere formality since it has not been independent, fair and professional.
Following the deadly accident in decades in Nepal, a three-member team of the Air Crash Investigation Commission is flying to Singapore on Friday to examine the black box of Yeti Airlines at the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore which provides the examination of data recorder & cockpit voice recorder free of cost.
However, foreign experts have no concrete role in the core investigation of the crash including extensive analysis of all available information including regulating body role, corruption, existing laws, and pattern analyses, among others.
They will only give feedback and safety recommendations to the Nepali team and do not touch on other aspects of air accidents in Nepal.
The black box which is significant for finding the cause of plane crashes contains Cockpit View Record (CVR) and Flight Radar Record (FDR).
What is even more unfortunate is Nepal’s corrupt officials will try to make this tragedy an opportunity for their vested interests and benefits.
While the Nepal government has yet to hand over all bodies to the victim’s relatives, the team members are heading to Singapore with the black box instead of a single person who can go to Singapore with the black box to get valuable data recorder to figure out what had actually happened to the ill-fated aircraft.
Two more people are flying unnecessarily to Singapore for their benefits just to waste the tax payer’s money.
However, despite all these, the reports of the commission should hold the related company and corrupt CAAN officers accountable and they, too, should be investigated.
The investigation should ensure the accountability of perpetrators to prevent any such accidents in the future.
Some of the airline companies in Nepal are carrying out over-ride under pressure from the management as they get permission from CAAN’s senior management team for gaining profit.
In case of recurring mistakes in the aviation sector happen in responsible nations, a lot of lawsuits will be filed against the airline companies and the regulatory body.
Aviation companies cannot get immune and can even go bankrupt due to high penalties and even the government authorities will be put behind bars.
But in Nepal, such culprits get immunity due to deep-rooted bribe practices.
Nepal’s investigation commissions conduct an on-site inspection and collect necessary formal documents.
But questions arise as to why conflict of interest individuals are involved in the investigation team.
Why Nepal is unable to form an independent investigation involving experts? Or, why does not the government form a joint investigation commission along with independent foreign experts?
It needs to be considered that only an independent investigation team can come up with clear answers to the many questions.
However, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal is least bothered to get an objective answer since its intention is to suppress the facts by controlling the entire investigation process.
Nepal’s Himalayan terrain and weather are undoubtedly one of the most challenging in the world.
But CAAN cannot escape by making this statement into consideration since it has been unable to strictly enforce mandatory safety procedures to domestic flights before any plane takeoff.
CAAN does not carry out thorough airworthiness inspections of all aircraft systems before approval of the flights.
CAAN’s guidelines, however, mention necessary paperwork to mandatorily safety check for any flights, which is only a formality in Nepal.
Observers and experts in the aviation sector are well aware of Nepal’s harsh Himalayan terrain, and hazardous conditions that make trouble to any aviation operations.
Most of Nepal’s investigation commission’s reports have concluded that most of Nepal’s aircraft accidents have been caused by Controlled Flights into Terrain.
The major causes of Nepal’s air accidents are largely ignored in the country in any investigation since the cause of major problems in Nepal is the deep-rooted corruption in the regulatory body and that failure on its part to enforce the standard operating procedures.
Nepal’s anti-corruption agency Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) recently arrested the Domestic Terminal Unit Chief Purna Chudal of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Jan 23.
Ironically, almost all the investigation commission reports in Nepal have blamed the pilots instead of blaming the weakness of the regulatory oversight.
The report also blames the deteriorating weather in the destination or in the mountains as the primary reason for crashes but never reveals the truth behind the real problems of CAAN’s leadership integrity, regulations problems, institutional transparency and accountability crisis.
Only a few airlines in Nepal have implemented their own safety procedures to mitigate the risk to ensure safety.
Some of the airline companies in Nepal are carrying out over-ride under pressure from the management as they get permission from CAAN’s senior management team for gaining profit.
Moreover, some airline companies operate under different names even though the owner is the same individual. Despite repeated crashes, the company leadership or the owner gets immune due to their deep-rooted political connection and their “persons” in CAAN leadership.
CAAN has been running with a clear conflict of interest. On one hand, they have been running the Authority for profit from service providers and on the other hand, they use the regulator at the same time.
CAAN has never taken accountability by thoroughly controlling the investigation commission through their conflict of interest individuals.
A deeper underlying problem or cause is corruption which has made Nepal’s air travel unsafe.
Senior CAAN officers are accustomed to giving flight orders for private airlines’ profits and later getting money from them.
If private airlines in Nepal fail to appease the CAAN officials with the bribe, they would face “hold” in the sky.
But some airlines are operating more flights even without proper checks of the weather conditions and other necessary safety measures for the sake of making money.
CAAN senior officials are consistently misusing their authority for their personal and their protectorate senior leaders’ gains.
The Authority has very few real working people but does not have frequent training and standard measures to ensure safety. Necessary safety reforms are never a priority of CAAN leadership.
Corruption has flourished in Nepal in every sector, and curbing corruption is nothing but eyewash. The senior leadership of CAAN has been getting full impunity through their political and bureaucratic nexus.
CIAA’s commissioners are handpicked by Nepal’s senior leadership and most of their decisions are made as per the orders from those who appointed them.
Their inability to maintain a culture of integrity and civic responsibility is making Nepal the world’s worst aviation safety record.
Nepal’s anti-corruption agency Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) recently arrested the Domestic Terminal Unit Chief Purna Chudal of Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Jan 23.
He is very close with the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Pradeep Adhikari.
Despite being surrounded by a lot of controversy and scandals, no investigation has been initiated against him due to his nexus with the anti-corruption body.
CIAA has carried out a sting operation to arrest him on the charge of illegal passes and other bribe charges.
Deep-rooted corruption in CAAN is one of the major causes of disasters in Nepal’s aviation sector.
If CIAA fairly investigated all aspects of CAAN’s top leadership, including former officials and its relatives’ property and prosecute them without bias most of the problems will be solved.
Without solving the CAAN corruption practice from top-to-bottom, Nepal’s aviation safety will be a matter of debate.
It may also be noted that Nepal has remained one of the most corrupt countries in the world.
Anti-graft body, CIAA, mostly targets low-level government officers in bureaucracy, which means that it has failed to function as per its constitutional mandate.
The CIAA has been a politicized anti-graft agency in Nepal where commissioners and chief commissioners are appointed on a political quota basis.
It may be noted that Nepal’s former Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli unilaterally brought the ordinance and made these appointments during his premiership.
Oli appointed his loyalist in the anti-graft body, CIAA, to all constitutional agencies with scraped the previous provision of the majority of the existing members of the Constitutional Council to recommend and parliamentary hearing within 45 days.
Responsible Nepali citizens and victims’ families need the commitment to hold all levels of the corrupt mechanism in Nepal’s aviation sector accountable for failing to ensure safety measures.
Oli dissolved the parliament after appointments of his loyal ones and they got appointed without fulfilling the necessary hearing process.
CIAA’s commissioners are handpicked by Nepal’s senior leadership and most of their decisions are made as per the orders from those who appointed them.
The Commission’s leadership themselves are controversial. The legitimacy of such constitutional appointments among CIAA Commissioners is still going on in the Nepal Supreme Court’s Constitutional Bench.
CIAA has systematically tolerated high-profile graft scams by making new trends to collaborate with them.
The anti-graft body has to launch an investigation of the CAAN officials and their connection which requires a polygraph examination to find out the truth.
Without civil aviation sector reforms in Nepal, aviation safety and capacity will never improve in the country, observers say.
Nepal’s Air Accident Investigation Commission’s investigating mechanism itself is a mere formality to show to the general public to defend the regularity body’s role.
Responsible Nepali citizens and victims’ families need the commitment to hold all levels of the corrupt mechanism in Nepal’s aviation sector accountable for failing to ensure safety measures.
This is high time that lawsuit is filed at the courts against the airline companies and the leadership of civil aviation regulators to hold them accountable.
Without be held accountable of responsible of aviation crashes nothing can stop such tragedy over and over again in Nepal.
Without holding them accountable, nothing can stop such a tragedy over and over again in Nepal.
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