When a Tara Air flight crashed in the Himalayan mountains at an altitude of about 14,500 feet on Sunday, it was the 19th plane crash in Nepal in 10 years and the 10th fatal in the same period, according to the Aviation Safety Network.
While investigators are still gathering what exactly happened – the black box was found on Tuesday, airport officials told CNN – experts say conditions such as erratic weather patterns, low visibility and mountain topography are contributing to Nepal’s reputation as dangerous. place to fly.
In particular, bad weather is thought to have played a role, Binod BK, a Nepal Interior Ministry official, told CNN. The weather forecast for Pokhara at the time, according to Nepal’s Hydrology and Meteorology Department, was “generally cloudy with brief thunderstorms”.
The Tara Air plane took off from Pokhara in central Nepal on Sunday morning and was about halfway from its 25-minute flight to the popular tourist destination of Jomsom when it lost contact with air traffic control, the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said.
Bad weather, poor visibility and loss of daylight prevented an initial search and rescue operation by Nepalese troops, but helicopters sent over mountainous terrain helped find debris from Monday’s alleged crash site and found the first bodies. Photos and videos released by the army show debris scattered across the ground.
On Tuesday, despite continued bad weather, rescuers said they had found all the bodies.
“Hostile topography”
Variable weather models are not the only problem with flights. According to a 2019 safety report from the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority, the country’s “hostile topography” is also part of the “huge challenge” pilots face.
Nepal, a country of 29 million people, is home to eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including Everest, and its beautiful rocky landscapes make it a popular tourist destination for tourists.
But this terrain can be difficult to navigate from the air, especially in bad weather, and things are made worse by the need to use small planes to access the more remote and mountainous parts of the country.
Aircraft with 19 seats or less are more likely to have accidents because of these challenges, according to a report by the Civil Aviation Agency.
The capital of Kathmandu is the main transit center of Nepal, where many of these small flights depart.
The airport in the city of Lukla, in northeastern Nepal, is often called the most dangerous airport in the world. Known as the gateway to Everest, the airport runway is located on a cliff between the mountains, falling straight into a precipice at the end.
The lack of investment in aging aircraft only increases the risks of flying.
In 2015, the International Civil Aviation Organization, a UN agency, gave priority to supporting Nepal through its partnership to support the implementation of aviation security. Two years later, ICAO and Nepal announced a partnership to address security issues.
Although the country has made improvements in its safety standards in recent years, challenges remain.
In 2016, a Tara Air flight crashed while flying the same route as the plane that was lost on Sunday. The incident involved a recently acquired Twin Otter aircraft flying in clear conditions. And in early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.
Teal Rebain, Sugam Pocarell and CNN’s Elizabeth Yee contributed.
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