NATIONAL7 (Spotlight Weekly)]

AIR SAFETY

Exposed

More than the publicity gimmicks, the officialdom should pull its socks up for safety in domestic civil aviation

By A CORRESPONDENT

If only publicity gimmicks could do real works, perhaps no finger would have been pointed at the country's air-safety measures. Take the case of last week's surprise inspection of domestic flights at the Tribhuvan International Airport by Bijaya Kumar Gachchhadhar, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation.

An approaching aircraft at an air strip : Risky terrain

In the presence of their boss at the domestic tarmac of the TIA, officials of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) grounded three aircrafts of private operators. The reason: Two of the Twin Otters belonging to Shangrila Air and Lumbini Airways did not have navigational equipment working properly.

The third similar type of aircraft of Flight Care Service was denied to fly since the inspectors found it had an uncertified first aid kit and its crew oxygen bottle did not have enough oxygen.

The high level team of CAAN also delayed the departure of five other flights since they were found to have minor lapses. An RNAC twin otter, for instance, was found to be carrying 420 pound excess weight.

Interestingly, when the surprise check was underway at the TIA, the state controlled Nepal Television's crew were on the spot filming the entire inspection process. By the same evening, CAAN faxed a press release to all daily newspapers highlighting the surprise check under the minister's monitoring.

As if that were not enough, Gachchhadhar went on record saying that was how the government was becoming serious on civil aviation's safety measures. The surprise check, which has been almost non-existent all over the years, he performed last week may try to justify Gachchhadhar's claim.

But, considering the many loopholes in the officialdom, the government is yet to pull its socks up. Consider this: An official of Lumbini Airways told a daily that CAAN officials very much knew about the non-functioning apparatuses in the aircraft days before the surprise inspection took place.

Going by the details, one of the pilots with Air Transport Support Center -- a unit of CAAN -- flew the same aircraft one day before the surprise check took place. Even then, the navigational equipment was non-functional. "If the out of order navigation equipment was the reason why CAAN grounded our aircraft, why did ATSC pilot himself flew the aircraft one day before without any complaint?"

The answer is: The officialdom has never been serious with ground inspection, meaning, inspecting the aircraft. Private operators say there has never been any surprise checks in the last couple of years. Which means new operators, that have begun operation in the last two years, have never faced such checks.

"Most of the official checks have been confined to our papers only," says an operator in condition of anonymity. According to the source, the inspectors of the authority heavily focus their inspection on the record and log-books, where pilots and engineers are required to mention about the condition of the aircraft's different equipments.

"We have different types of inspections that include base inspection, station inspection, among others," says Rajesh Dali, Chief of ATSC. "The routine inspections usually take place every month."

But, the actual condition of the aircrafts may not be as safe as what is mentioned in the log-books, knowledgeable sources say. Of the almost 70 aircrafts CAAN has registered to-date, most of them are ageing ones -- some of them manufactured as back as in 1960's. Necon Air's HS-748-1A Avro, for instance, was manufactured in 1963. Similarly, RNAC's one of the avros was made in 1969.

"The growing use of the junk aircrafts has also triggered criticism against Nepal's domestic civil aviation," aviation experts say.

Why should the number of such aircraft not rise when every Tom, Dick and Harry is allowed to open private airline? Ever since it opened the skies for the private operators in the early 90's, the government has distributed 30 Aircraft Operating Certificates. Almost one dozen applicants are said to be in the pipeline to get the license.

Together with the increase in the number of the operators, the graph of aircraft accidents is also steadily on the rise. In the last five years one and a half dozen aircraft accidents have taken place -- most of them including the private companies' aircraft.

Eight of these accidents were fatal air-crashes that claimed 55 lives.

"Now that the government has itself found that there have been safety compromises, it should conduct frequent surprise checks," says Birendra Basnet, Managing Director of Buddha Airways.