The Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, witnessed an incident when a small passenger aircraft crashed on take-off killing 18 people. It was another reminder of the shocking air safety record of Nepal.
Here is why Nepal is especially vulnerable to accidents that have claimed over 360 lives in its airplane and helicopter crashes since 2000.
Geography
It is a landlocked country situated between India and China with eight out of the world’s fourteen highest mountains and numerous small airports in remote hills or near peaks in clouds region where planes fly through.
In addition to physical hurdles, terrain can also suffer unexpected weather changes which affect wind speeds or intensity making it hard to navigate.
According to a 2023 safety report by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). Colliding with terrain or obstructions accounted for 93% of deaths in aviation accidents during the previous decade.
Table-top runways
Due to lack of flat areas in Nepal, some locations feature table-top runways. Which are created by carving off peaks so as to level them.
These are marked by sheer drops at one or both ends necessitating more precision landing but as well causing severe injuries or fatalities whenever pilots overshoot on approach.
Aging fleet
Nepal has not adequately invested in upgrading or maintaining its aircrafts compared to other poorer nations around the world.
They are generally aged such that they miss certain features found elsewhere. While being poorly serviced hence making incidents more probable.
This partly led European Union ban against airlines certified from here back in 2013 citing “safety concerns”.
Nevertheless, this year’s latest safety review by EU acknowledged about engagement activities among other things attempted positively regarding oversight from regulating authority which was done last year.
Crew management and training
Experts argue that better pilot training systems should be instituted in Nepal. Since some crashes have been caused by poor decision-making processes by pilots themselves alone.
For instance, lack of awareness of standard operating procedures leading the pilot to mistakenly shutting down the engine resulted in a January 2023 crash that killed 72 people in Nepal.
According to International Air Transport Association’s report, this was Asia-Pacific’s only fatal incident last year. Which ended several years of improving safety performance regionally.
Regulation and oversight
While most countries have separate bodies handling aviation services and regulation, Nepal’s regulator CAAN regulates airlines as well as manages airports.
This has been seen as conflict of interest by experts who believe that self-policing makes management and corruption possible.
CAAN disputes this view maintaining that the two divisions operate independently under its umbrella agency.
