The grim images of the wreckage of a Tara Air de Havilland DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft in Nepal have once again highlighted the complexities of ensuring aviation safety in one of the most challenging environments in the world, and in regulating the mountain nation’s Short Take-off and Landing (STOL) flights that are a tourist draw. The plane with 22 passengers, including an Indian family, was on an ‘air trek’ along the scenic yet aerially treacherous Pokhara to Jomsom route on Sunday when it lost radar contact at around 13,000 feet. STOL operations call for well-honed piloting skills, and as 3-D terrain maps of the flight path show, danger lurks in every corner in the form of jagged peaks, narrow passes and fickle weather. The small unpressurised craft used in this sector operate at a ceiling of 13,000 feet and are airborne for a short duration — oxygen supplies are needed for all passengers if flights exceed over 30 minutes above 13,000 ft. Flights are characterised by manoeuvres of 90 degree turns in valleys that have at times just wing length clearance. And as in any competitive tourism market crowded with various STOL operators, there are many pressures that can tell on the crew: commercial stress points such as not having wasted fuel moments and ensuring passenger contentment by pushing the envelope of crucial visual flight rules (VFR). Not following VFR is cited as the main cause of accidents in Nepal’s STOL operations.
So, is Nepal pushing the boundaries in air safety? Data put out by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal show domestic air travel having risen by 15.45% in 2018, though registering a dip in 2019-20 largely on account of travel restrictions following the global COVID-19 pandemic. But, interestingly, country data over the past 10 years have shown a sharp drop in the accident rate in general, the only blip being a rise in helicopter incidents with growing copter operations in logistics, relief and rescue, and tourism. In the same timeframe, the STOL sector has seen a higher rate of accidents than trunk route air operations; of the 19 accidents, 16 were STOL aircraft. Accident analysis has shown Controlled Flight into Terrain, Runway excursions and Loss of Control In-flight as the leading causes. A more realistic check lies in the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme of the International Civil Aviation Organization monitoring safety oversight obligations by all 193 member-states (as of June 2020), in which Nepal’s scores — it last participated in the programme in 2017 — dropped in ‘Organization’ and ‘Accident Investigation’. In an era of improving global air safety, Nepal needs to scale a crucial summit by working on pending legislation that unbundles its civil aviation body into a regulator and service provider, paving the way for a full-fledged safety system, and in turn enabling safer STOL operations.
