Latest !
To Overtalk:
The incident took place on the 9th Oct '03. Flight No: RA409, B757-200.
To Middle path:
I must admit that you are well informed about the maintainance not being too good in RA Jets, and about the Operation Director Being a F/O who ordered the crew grounded.
To Duir:
Its true about the satisfaction and chill people experience going to these places. The approaches and landings are equally exciting every time we go there. I fly for one of the Twinotter operators out here.
Here is the Latest about the Incident:
At the KTM ground, before depature for Hongkong, the B757/200 Flight NO: RA 409 had an IRS problem where by one of the IRS was not working. The Commander had asked the Engineers to fix the problem before the flight as they thought they would need it during an approach to Hongkong Airport. God knows what the Engineers did, all the 3 IRS were gone. BTW I agree 100% with middle path regarding the maintenance not being too good on the RA Jets. (The engineers seem to be more interested in flying allowances than keeping the Aircraft Airworthy. That is the reason why the RA B757 Jet Engineers have more flight hours than the RA B757 Captains and co-pilots. So, you can guess the qualifications of the Engineers youself). Later, after fiddling with the problem (I wouldn't call it fixing the problem) for 30 minutes the Engineers were able to recover 2 out of the 3 IRS. At that ,point the Commander asked them to replace the unserviceable IRS. Although the company had a brand new IRS in their stuck, the Engineers told the Commander that the couldn't do it (Your guess is as good as mine) because they didn't have the qualification to do it !?! So, what the Engineers did was release the flight under MEL.
Right after the T/O on IGRIS 1A departure while the aircraft was turing right to intercept the 4 DME ARC, The aircraft lost both the remaining IRS. Followed by all the navigation equipments failure, Ex. all auto pilots gone, HSI gone, ADI gone, Auto Throttle Gone, No vor, No dme no RMI as well as Yaw Damper failure.
Condition was marginal VFR at the time of departure. The crew had with them the magnetic (Ball) compass, standby Artificial Horizon to control the Aircraft and all manual flying. For about 45-50 minutes the Aircraft was trying to fly VFR under cloudy condition and the Aircraft was headed towards New Delhi. But Later as the WX at KTM Airport improved the crew decided to Land back at KTM Airport.
The factor that contributed to the safe Landing of B757 was crew's knowledge about the local terrain and that KTM is their home base. Had this happended (I hope and pray that it doesn't happen again to anyone else) to some other Foreign Airline, I feel it would have been Very Very Difficult (but not impossible) to come out of the Kathmandu valley which is sorrounded by mountains.
For your kind information, There has been a number of Aircrashes around the mountains surrounding the KTM Valley mostly during their approach to KTM and some during the departure from KTM Airport.
1. PIA (A310)- on sierra approach, 8 DME south of KTM
2. Lufthansa Cargo(B727) - South West departure at 6 DME South west
3. Skyline Airways(DHc-6/300)- on approach from at 15 Dme south.
4. Necon Air(HS 748) - on approach to KTM at 7 DME west.
5. Thai Airways (A310) - on approach to KTM at 20 DME North.
6. DC-3 : During approach 9 Dme east of KTM
7 DC-3 : during approach 11 Dme south of KTM
8. Royal Nepal DHC-6/300: During Departure at 2 DME North.
9. Royal nepal PC-6 : During Departure at 4 Miles North.
Have a good day and happy landings everybody.
Himalaya.