Twenty-four hours after Tara Air’s 9 NAET twin-engine aircraft with 22 people on board, including four Indians, crashed, the Nepal Army has located the site of the crash to Sanosware, Thasang-2 in Mustang district.
Crash site: Sanosware, Thasang-2, Mustang pic.twitter.com/OcN93N1Qyb
— NASpokesperson (@NaSpokesperson) May 30, 2022
The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane operated by Tara Air had lost contact minutes after it took off from the tourist city of Pokhara around 10 am on Sunday.
The Canadian-built plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal.
This isn’t the first air crash to take place in Nepal; a 2018 AFP report had stated that there have been 27 fatal plane crashes in the country in the past three decades, an average of one almost each year. Most of these involved small aircraft.
Nepal’s history of air accidents
Despite the recent boom in Nepal’s air industry over the recent years, the country has a poor track record in the aviation sector. Nepal’s aviation industry has long been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.
In 2019, a helicopter operated by Air Dynasty crashed into a hill, as it was attempting to find its way back to Kathmandu. All seven passengers, who was on board, including Nepal’s tourism minister Rabindra Adhikari and entrepreneur Ang Chhiring Sherpa, died in the crash.
A year before this, on 12 March, a 76-seater Bombardier Q400 of US-Bangla Airlines, a privately-owned Bangladeshi airline, crashed while landing at the Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 51 people on board.
In February 2016, 23 people lost their lives when a small plane from Pokhara to Jomson went missing eight minutes after take-off. The wreckage of the plane was found later in Myagdi, a mountainous district.
Nineteen people died in the 2012 Sita Air Flight 601 crash of September 2012. The domestic passenger flight crashed while making an emergency landing at Kathmandu. The plane was flying to Tenzing-Hillary Airport from Kathmandu but developed some technical issues that forced it to go for an emergency landing.
Earlier that year, Nepal witnessed another air tragedy when a Dornier 228 aircraft of private airline Agni Air, which was flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, crashed near the Jomsom airport, killing 15 of the 21 people on board. Six people were rescued from the crash site.
On 25 September 2011, a Beechcraft 1900D aircraft of Buddha Air crashed near Lalitpur. All 22 people on board, including 10 Indian nationals, were killed.
Another Tara aircraft had crashed in December 2010 when the plane flying from Lamidanda to Kathmandu — crashed shortly after take-off. All 22 people on board, including three crew members, were killed.
Another crash had also taken place in 2010 — after an Agni Air Flight 101 went missing off the radar. The flight was flying from Kathmandu and Lukla but crashed 22 minutes after take-off near Kathmandu. All 14 people on board were killed.
The worst aviation tragedy the Himalayan nation witnessed was in July 1992 when Pakistan International Airlines Flight 268 crashed while approaching Kathmandu International Airport, killing all 167 people on board.
Reasons for Nepal’s poor track record
There are multiple reasons why flying in Nepal is tricky and dangerous. The mountains, poor regulation and lack of new planes have contributed to the country’s poor aviation record.
The terrain has been attributed as the toughest challenge for flying in the Himalayan nation. As The Print reports, Nepal’s only international airport is located in a narrow valley 1,338 metres above sea level, because of which planes have a relatively tight space to turn in.
Furthermore, the weather changes quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.
Another cause of these crashes is the lack of proper radar technology — pilots have to navigate the treacherous terrain and tricky weather conditions by sight.
Nepal also does not have the required and sufficient skilled, trained and highly self-motivated civil aviation staff to perform the assigned duties fully. The inability to produce the required workforce has also to do with the lack of budget. Due to a workforce crunch, a few staff members are often burdened with the responsibility of stretching their work hours. This, of course, hampers the quality of work.
Nepal’s poor aviation record also forced the European Commission to impose a blanket ban on Nepali airlines from flying into the 28-nation bloc.
Many experts also note that the aviation authority is plagued with corruption allegations. In 2019, Airbus, the European aerospace company, paid at least €340,000 in bribes to Nepali businessmen and officials in order to secure contracts for two narrow-body Airbus A320 jets for Nepal Airlines Corporation.
With inputs from agencies
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