BY NAVIN SINGH KHADKA

Kathmandu, July 19:Six months after the C-208 Cessna Caravan of Necon Air crashed immediately after it took off at Jumla Airport, the crash investigation Commission has come up with a blend of fault findings — both on the part of the government and the private operator.

At the face of it, the report pinpoints the pilot of the chartered flight responsible for the crash on January 17 this year that left four passengers and a crew-member dead. “The probable cause of the accident was due to pilot’s failure to put the aircraft in take-off configurations,” sums up the report submitted to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation today.

As usual, this time too human error was the bottom-line. “That is the case in most of the air crashes,” admits Dip Mani Rajbhandari, Chairman and Managing Director of Necon Air.

The finding of the probe commission, however, does not confine to its face value alone. In its 21-point findings, the report has well underscored official shortcoming to manage civil aviation — especially during emergencies and accidents.

Here’s a click: “Fire could not be extinguished as the fire fighting equipment or aid was not made available at the site,” reads one of the findings of the report. A more disappointing finding: There was a mobile fire extinguisher in Jumla Tower but in packed condition.

Equally frustrating were the “discoveries” on the way the ill-fated aircraft was handled. The report has it that Necon Air was using the aircraft as a two-man crew operation while it has been approved and trained as one-man operation.

“There is no access between cockpit and cabin for the evacuation of passengers. There was no rescue crash axe in the aircraft,” points out the report of the six-member Commission headed by Deputy Attorney General Narendra Kumar Shrestha.

Even as fingers are also pointed at the operator, the ultimate responsibility to ensure air safety rests on the concerned government agency, experts say. And that exactly must be where the shoe pinches for the Civil Aviation Authority Nepal (CAAN).

The Department turned Authority, pretty comfortable with the limited flights of the Royal Nepal Airlines Corporation till 1992, began to see its responsibility increase by leaps and bounds after increasing number of private airliners began to buzz the Nepalese skies.

In the last six years, nearly two dozen private operators have already acquired the Aircraft Operating Certificate (AOC) for domestic operation, while more than one dozen, including fixed wing and rotating ones, is flying in the domestic routes. “As a result, there is no parking space for the aircraft at the Tribhuvan International Airport,” complains Rajbhandari.

Proportionally growing is the number of air traffic accident. Of the 31 major and minor aircraft accidents between 1975 and 1991, according to Rajesh Dali, Chief of Air Transport Support Centre under CAAN, 16 took place in the last four years alone. Last year, 22 persons died in three major crashes including a Twin Otter of Lumbini Airways, a helicopter of Asian Airlines and a Pilatus Porter of RNAC.

By the half way down this year, two major crashes — Cessna of Necon Air and a cargo carrier of Lufthansa earlier this month — have already claimed ten lives.

Investigations have always followed every crash or accidents. Probe reports have even reached the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). But the billion Dollar question — Were any lessons ever learnt from such accidents? — still remains unanswered.

“The ministry itself will monitor if the safety measures recommended by the probe commission this time are implemented,” assured Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar, Minister for Tourism and Civil Aviation, while formally receiving the report at his ministry today.

If that ever happens practically, there is no reason why Nepalese skies cannot be safe enough.