I’last year, there were 22 victims in it‘a Tara Air Twin Otter that crashed on Sanosware on May 29, on a domestic flight in Nepal. For the tiny Himalayan nation nestled between India and Tibet, 2023 couldn’t have been a better start accident, shortly before landing in Pokhara, a Yeti Airlines ATR 72. Nepal’s history of air transport accidents, such as compiled by Aviation Safety, uplifting. One or even two accidents happen almost every year. Over the last ten years, about twenty accidents have been counted in Nepal.
Flight uncertainty
The configuration of places makes air travel difficult though unavoidable when an hour of plane avoids a day of road travel, or more. If possible, because the Himalayas has no less than fourteen peaks over 8,000 meters. Mont-Blanc, at 4,810 m, is a hill… By plane, direct passage is not always possible, small local planes (20 to less than 100 seats) do not have the necessary power and pressure to overcome the relief.
Clouds, permafrost and strong winds made flying difficult. The classic assistive devices commonly found elsewhere in the world do not exist. No radar, not effective with terrain. On the ground, little radio assistance when landing thankfully comes with an on-board GPS to know where you are. As for weather coverage, it’s matched by the lack of forecaster stations. Prior to regulatory changes, it was not uncommon to see planes take off for a destination without the crew having a clear idea of what to expect on arrival.
Tilted airstrip
Airport! The term may be imprecise for often referring to a piece of land on a mountain, less than 500 meters long, unkempt, sometimes enclosed in a village. Landing facing a slope requires special qualifications and takeoffs are made in the other direction, regardless of wind direction. But most importantly, this altiport configuration prohibits walking. Even if the approach speed and slope are not correct, if there is a shift in the wind, if there is an obstruction on the runway, you must land. Anything can still happen as long as the plane has not arrived at the parking lot, the brakes apply, and the engine stops. Air Alpes, based in Chambery, had signed a major contract in 1967 with the Nepalese company Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation for mountain flight and altiport landing training for some crews. This training will last for five months.
black list
These robust operational constraints require careful monitoring of airlines and aerodromes by regulatory authorities. This is not the case for Nepal. To understand local practice, one must remember that in 2007 Nepal Airlines maintenance personnel bent over a plane that sacrificed two goats to avoid in-flight technical problems, they said.
Since December 2013, all airlines certified by the regulatory supervisory authority of Nepal banned in the European Community. This translates into – unrealistically – a ban on flights to European countries, as no Nepalese company has suitable long-haul flights on these European routes. On the other hand, this blacklist prohibits European tour operators from marketing Nepali company flights, at the risk of seeing seller’s liability incurred in the event of an accident. Likewise, European companies cannot enter into codeshare agreements (share code) with the local operator.
Investigations with BEA
The Yeti Airlines fleet currently consists of six ATR 72-500s with a capacity of 70 seats with an average age of 14 years. As the French-Italian regional aircraft is assembled in Toulouse, Le Bourget’s BEA will be involved in technical investigations, as well as its Canadian counterpart ATR powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127 turbines. The ATR is equipped with flight recorders which are unreadable in Nepal due to a lack of dedicated laboratories.
ATR 72, registered 9N-ANC, flew domestic YT-691 from Kathmandu to Pokhara (30 minutes flight, 200 km or 5.5 hours drive). Sixty-eight passengers and four crew members were on board.
