Preliminary investigation suggests that “propeller feathering” may have been the cause. atr plane crash On January 15, 72 people were killed in an attack near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal.
Budhi Sagar Lamichhane, member secretary of the government-appointed inquiry commission, told News18 that the propellers of both the engines got stuck in the base leg of the aircraft 10 seconds before it was about to reach runway 12.
“This means that the blades of the aircraft are straight without spreading to a certain degree,” he said. “Usually this only happens after starting the landing approach.”
He said the commission is probing the technical and human aspects as to why the propeller blades of both the engines were damaged.
According to another member of the committee, when the propellers go into feathering, the power of the engine will gradually decrease. At that time the plane cannot fly as fast as before.
He said Yeti Airlines flight 691 may have crashed before reaching the runway after a sudden loss of engine power. According to him, when the power of the engine decreased, the plane would have stalled.
The chart above shows how the altitude of the aircraft decreased. According to members of the Investigative Committee, it also strengthens the suspicion that the aircraft may have stalled.
The above committee member said that a preliminary report of the inquiry panel is being prepared covering this issue.
The commission arrived at this conclusion from data analysis of both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder sent to the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) in Singapore.
A team including former secretary Nagendra Prasad Ghimire, commission’s coordinator engineer Deepak Prasad Bastola and senior captain Sunil Pradhan also went to Singapore for the investigation. Various flight and technical aspects were also checked during that time.
runway 12 problems
According to Premnath Thakur, head of the Tribhuvan International Airport Civil Aviation Authority, the crashed plane was to land at Pokhara International Airport at 10:52 a.m. Nepalese time that day.
According to the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of the airport, the aircraft was in contact with Pokhara International Airport till 10.50 am. On final contact, the pilots were asked to land on runway 30.
According to former pilot Om Gurung, this runway is known as Direct Approach Landing.
However, the flight crew members chose runway 12, where they were supposed to take off and land, towards the old Pokhara airport.
ATC gave permission as there was no traffic problem. However, the aircraft, while adjusting the nose on runway 12 of the airport, suddenly crashed into the Seti Gorge, which was 1,800 meters ahead.
Why? The inquiry committee constituted by the government has said that the power of the aircraft may have suddenly reduced. Although the reason behind this is being investigated, but it is feared that there may have been some lapse on the part of pilot Kamal KC and his assistant.
According to an official, KC’s aide Anju Khatiwada was sitting on the left seat because that flight was also a ‘test’ for her to get Pokhara flight clearance. The chief pilot controlling the aircraft sits on the left.
Officials of the inquiry committee said that the instructor pilot could have been seated as a passenger by giving full responsibility of the aircraft to KC Khatiwada. Officials suspect that Khatiwada might not have noticed that the plane had lost power when he was only concentrating on adjusting the line on the runway as it was about to land.
A committee official said, “If the power had been increased, the plane would have been in perfect condition,” but, he did not notice the steady decrease in power, even by pilot Casey.
Thus, within a minute of last contact with Pokhara International Airport, the biggest plane crash in the history of Nepalese domestic flights occurred, according to officials.
disaster on the easy way out
In the aviation sector, the air route from Tribhuvan International Airport to Pokhara is considered easy. However, an ATR aircraft of Yeti Airlines crashed on the same route, killing 72 people.
According to Kaski’s Assistant Chief District Officer Anik Shahi, 71 bodies have been found so far at the accident site. One person is still missing.
According to Sanjeev Gautam, former director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, this is the biggest ever air crash in terms of human casualties that has happened on the internal route of Nepal. On top of that he said it was surprising that the accident happened on a route that was supposed to be easy.
Premnath Thakur, head of the Tribhuvan International Airport’s civil aviation office, also said it was surprising that the accident happened when the plane had already been given permission to land.
According to officials, the visibility at Pokhara International Airport was 7 km at the time of the accident. An airplane can land within 5 km visibility at Pokhara. The wind speed was five and a half kilometers per hour. Therefore, there were no conditions that would hinder the landing.
Serious challenge for Nepal’s aviation sector
The European Union (EU) has been banning Nepalese air service since 2013. The European Union has imposed sanctions on the Nepali aviation industry, leading to rising air accidents, raising questions about air safety and regulations.
Achyut Pahadi, a retired air safety expert after a long stint with Nepal Airlines, says the accident, which resulted in huge casualties, has raised the risk of a further extension of the EU ban.
This accident is the 58th in the aviation history of Nepal. According to the Civil Aviation Authority’s Aviation Safety Report, 2022, 363 passengers have died in those accidents so far. 139 passengers on board the crashed plane were rescued alive.
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