Nepal Civil Aviation Administration Spokesperson Jagannath Niroula informed that Pokhara International Airport became operational on 1 January. Niroula said the instrument landing system at the airport, which helps planes land safely, will not work until February 26.
WAS THE CAUSE FOUND?
Pilot Amit Singh, founder of the Safety Matters Foundation, headquartered in India, assessed that failure of the instrument landing system or navigational aids may have caused the accident.
“Flying in Nepal is much more difficult if you don’t have navigational aids and it puts more workload on pilots when there is a problem in flight.” Using the expression, Singh said that the absence of an instrument landing system “signifies that the air security in Nepal is not sufficient”.
CALL HOSPITALS FOR AUTOPSY
Meanwhile, Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal met with the families of the victims and called on hospitals to speed up the autopsy process.
While aviation experts claim that the plane went out of control at low altitude, the exact cause of the incident, which has been recorded as the “deadliest accident of the last 30 years” in the country, has not yet been determined.
According to data from the Flight Safety Foundation, 42 fatal plane crashes have occurred in Nepal since 1946.
WHAT HAPPENED?
The “ATR 72” type passenger plane belonging to Yeti Airlines, which took off from the capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, crashed near the Seti River Valley on January 15.
State television broadcast images of flame and smoke coming from the plane that crashed in the steep region at the foot of the Himalayan Mountains.
As of today, the bodies of 72 people were found on the plane that crashed near the Seti River Valley, 1.6 kilometers from Pokhara International Airport.
According to data from online air traffic monitoring site “Flightradar24.com”, the 15-year-old “ATR 72” aircraft that crashed was equipped with a “transmitter with unreliable data”.
Prime Minister Dahal declared a one-day “national mourning” across the country while deciding to establish a committee of 5 people to investigate the accident.
The black box of the crashed plane was found on January 16 and it was announced that it would be sent to France for examination.