Yeti Airlines plane crashed in Pokhara and killed all 72 people on board, including five Indians. It is considered as the country’s worst air crash in 30 years. The aircraft was en route from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, the country’s second largest city, situated under the picturesque Annapurna mountain range.
The Transport Ministry’s (MOT) Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (TSIB) will help retrieve and read the data from the plane’s flight recorders, said an MOT spokesperson in a statement on Thursday to PTI.
The analysis will be carried out at TSIB’s flight recorder readout facility, which was set up in 2007.
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“All investigation-related information, including the progress of investigations and the findings, will be handled by the Nepalese investigation authority," The Straits Times reported, quoting the spokesperson.
Flight recorders, or black boxes, capture information about a flight such as instrument warnings and audio recordings, and help in piecing together events leading up to an incident.
The Nepali investigation team will on Friday leave for Singapore with the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, according to a Washington Post report.
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Examination of the black boxes is expected to take a week and will be free, The Kathmandu Post had said on Wednesday.
Singapore’s examination of the boxes is under an MOT and Nepal’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation memorandum of understanding to cooperate on aircraft accident investigations signed in February 2020.
“The MOU covers the use of investigation facilities and equipment, including the flight recorder readout facility, training, and observer attachments," said the MOT spokesman.
Nepal is situated between India and China and is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest or Sagarmāthā. For flight operations, it’s an almost unrivalled, harsh environment with sudden weather changes that can make for hazardous conditions.
The country has recorded at least 350 casualties associated with aeroplanes or helicopters since 2000, which has raised questions about the effectiveness of its aviation safety regulations.
While Nepal’s aviation industry has made significant efforts to improve safety, unfortunately the safety record still doesn’t match up with the requirements of other civil aviation authorities.
In particular, the European Union banned all Nepali airlines from operating in the bloc’s airspace in 2013 after ICAO raised a red flag. That ban still hasn’t been lifted, and Nepal remains on the EU Air Safety List.
Despite the tragic casualty record, Nepal has stepped up its efforts to improve aviation safety. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has been focusing on improving safety in Nepali aviation – such as building improvements at airports, upgrading safety equipment, and fostering a positive safety culture by encouraging hazard reporting.
(With inputs from agencies)
