2023-12-29 09:02:09
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 7 hours ago, Updated 6 hours ago
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The authorities’ report on the accident which occurred in January 2023, presented Thursday to the Ministry of Tourism, mentions an “inadvertent actuation” of controls which would have cut off the plane’s thrust, leading it to lose altitude up to to crash.
Nepalese authorities believe that pilot error was the cause of the plane crash that killed all 72 people on board last January, the worst air disaster in the Himalayan country since 1992, said a member of the investigative committee told AFP on Friday. “Technically, the plane was in good condition, but it is believed that a human-caused misoperation caused its crash», Explained Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, after several months of investigations. A “bad lever» would have been used in the cockpit, he claimed.
The report, presented Thursday to the Ministry of Tourism, mentions a “inadvertent actuation» of commands which would have cut off the thrust of the plane, leading it to lose altitude until it crashed. The text mentions “human factors such as high workload and stress which appear to have led to misidentification and selection of propellers.»
Poor maintenance of equipment and lax enforcement of safety rules
The crew had not noticed the signals warning of the propellers stopping, it is explained. The plane, a twin-engine ATR 72 from the Nepalese company Yeti Airlines which was carrying 68 passengers and four crew members, crashed while en route between the capital Kathmandu and Pokhara (center), center of pilgrimage and important crossing point for trekkers. Among the occupants of the plane were six children and 15 foreign nationals. A video posted on social media showed the twin-engine aircraft banking sharply to the left as it approached Pokhara airport, followed by a loud explosion. Nepalese civil aviation, essential for supplying remote regions of the country and transporting hikers and mountaineers there, has experienced real growth in recent years.
Poor maintenance of equipment and lax application of safety rules weigh on the sector despite international recommendations. The European Union has banned all Nepalese carriers from its airspace for security reasons. Nepal has some of the most remote and complex tracks in the world, flanked by snow-capped peaks whose approach poses a challenge for even the most experienced pilots. In 1992, a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed on approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 passengers, the deadliest air accident in the country’s history.
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