Fishtail Air chopper crash due to lack of judgement

RSS

KATHMANDU: The reason for the crash of a Fishtail Air's helicopter in Solukhumbu on November 7 was the lack of adequate checking and the inability to make proper judgement of the landing site.

The 9N AIX helicopter of the Fishtail Air met with an accident on the northern ridge of Mt. Amadablam in Solukhumbu district while on a rescue mission. Pilot Sabin Basnet and mechanic Purna Awale died in the crash.

Handing over the investigation report to Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation Sharat Singh Bhandari on Friday, chairman of the helicopter crash probe team Nagendra Prasad Ghimire said the accident was also caused as the helicopter company failed to carry out a proper risk evaluation and action plan.

Minister Bhandari while releasing the report expressed the confidence that the probe commission was successful in bringing the facts related to the crash and that the Ministry was conscious to prevent such accidents in future.

It is also stated in the report that inability to maintain training standard and procedures and the lack of the policy of assigning pilots on the basis of their acquaintance with the nature and the type of risk are also the causes of the accident.

The pilot was confronted with the lack of ground signal and the rotor blade of the helicopter happened to brush a pile of snow to the left as he could not stop that on time causing the crash, it is learnt.

The government had constituted a three-member accident investigation commission under the convenorship of Ghimire. The Ministry employees Suresh Acharya and Deeepakraj Koirala and Captain Pramod Kumar Lama were the members of the probe committee.