Nepal witnessed another tragic plane crash on Wednesday when a Bombardier CRJ 200 plane crashed and caught fire while taking off from Nepal's capital Kathmandu, killing 18 people. This accident came barely a year after the country witnessed another deadly plane crash in January, where a Yeti Airlines passenger plane crashed at Pokhara International Airport in the foothills of the Himalayas. All 72 people onboard the aircraft died in the accident.
These are not isolated incidents. As per the figures by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), at least 68 aeroplane accidents in the country since 1955 – 44 of them deadly. Since 2000, the country recorded 19 plane and helicopter crashes, which killed 360 people.
In 2023 alone, Nepal saw two accidents- one involving a twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft which killed 72 people in January and a helicopter crash that killed 6 people in Central Nepal last in July.
What makes air travel, generally considered a safe means of transport, a risky one in Nepal? The treacherous terrain is cited as a prominent reason for the frequent air disasters in this mountainous country. The main airport of the country, the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu is located in a narrow valley 1,338 metres above sea level. It has a tabletop runway, which means planes have relatively little space to navigate.
Another airport used by those travelling to Mount Everest is the Tenzin-Hillary Airport in Lukla. The Tenzin-Hillary airport has been described as one of the world’s most dangerous airports. This measures just 527 metres compared to Mumbai airport's runway which has a length of 3,660 meters.
For the same reason, Nepal airlines mostly depend on small aircraft like Twin Otters, Let-L 410s and Dorniers, which only require shorter takeoff and landing airfields.
The mountainous environment enveloping the airport also means that the pilot has little to no room for error, as once they approach the runway they have no choice but to go ahead with landing. The planes take off and land at high altitudes in low air density, which affects the performance of an aircraft. This makes the plane difficult to slow down.
The terrain, coupled with bad weather, makes flight journeys risky, especially during monsoon season. "The unpredictable weather changes in the high terrains between takeoff and landing is the reason for most accidents. In these routes, most domestic flights use visual flight rules (VFR) in which the pilot controls and navigates the plane using visual references from outside,” aviation expert Sanjeev Gautam told Al Jazeera.
Many times the pilots are forced to break the VFR due to the weather and terrain obstacles. In 2018, 51 of 71 people on a Bangladeshi airliner operated by US-Bangla Airlines died when it crashed in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the Nepalese capital's hill-ringed airport.
Despite the sudden changes in weather, visibility and pressure, the country lacks the proper technology and aircraft to tide over the disadvantages.
The aeroplanes that conduct service are mostly old as cash-strapped Nepali aircraft operators cannot afford new aircraft that do not have modern weather radars or GPS technology, especially in a dangerous place like Nepal.
There are also allegations that the operators openly flout norms, including safety recommendations. They are often shielded from action by politicians.
