State Minister for Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation, Yankila Sherpa (second form right) in the inaugural session of a workshop related to the air safety in Kathmandu, Wednesday, Jan 04 06. nepalnews.com/rh

Aviation safety experts proudly announced today that the year 2005 created a new history in the field of civil aviation with no aviation casualties for the year from January 4, 2005 to January 4, 2006.

Addressing a workshop related to air safety in Kathmandu today, state minister for Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation, Yankila Sherpa said, “Thanks and congratulations to all for their important efforts to make air travel safe in this country.”

She further said this fact would remove the impact of negative propaganda about Nepal in other parts of the world, which has hampered the tourism sector in the country.

Experts also shared the views that the proper maintenance of aircraft, strictly adhering to the rules and regulations, well equipped and maintained airport facilities, as well as the timely and reliable information on the weather are the major factors that reduce accident rates.

The high mountains, difficult terrain and bad weather are the major causes which effects flight safety and Nepal has borne bitter experiences of air crashes in the past years.

Studies and data have proved that air transportation is safest mode of transportation in the world. Statistics show that in 2003, there were over 1.2 billion people who flew on over 1.9 millions flights worldwide, but there was only 8 fatal accidents in the year.

In the previous year in Nepal, 1.6 million passengers traveled by air inside the country.