News of this accident shocked me more than most, as I flew with Agni Air to Pokhara less than a week before. However, looking back on the flt, perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised.
My return flt from Pokhara to Kathmandu was with Buddha Air, which seemed of similar standard, by which I mean poorly conducted. Both sectors were flown as VFR but happily penetrated cloud, albeit for brief periods while in the cruise and towards top of climb and on desc. Both sectors were flown at approx 12-13000'AMSL (advised by pilot PA) as I assume this is a standard Alt for the operation. The route seems to follow a lower valley region, which is relatively safe, but my qn is, why fly at alts where IMC is penetrated, clearly below grid or route safe (Himalayas visible just to the nth of track), when they could have flown VMC only a few thousand feet lower. Also, they simply conducted a standard straight desc into the Airfield - how did they know they would get visual? I assumed they were given met info from preceding flts, but this is hardly legal. Having had extensive experience in Highland flt ops, including IFR ops into KTM, I was less than impressed at the pointlessly risky methods used to conduct these flts, which I assume was motivated by efficiency.
A further qn must be raised as to why the Captain of the Dornier elected to penetrate IMC with a flt instrument failure. The R02 VOR appch is a difficult and demanding IAP and would be extremely hazardous with unreliable flt insts. Surely there was a break or hole in the cloud somewhere in the KTM valley that he could of used to make a VFR appch. Even if he was IMC at the time of the instrument failure (which he should never have been) then he could have climbed to the KTM MSA of ~12500' to the Sth, a much safer option than descending, and diverted to other lower lying airfields only short distances from KTM (Lucknow, Kolkata, Dhaka). He probably would have broken visual at some stage during diversion and then assessed if a return to KTM could have been achieved safely.
Flt in IMC cannot safely be conducted below MSA or enroute safe Alt (MOCA) - it's that simple! Mtn/highland flying like this, necessitates VFR procedures and cond's. No point blaming instrument failures for what is a human factor, rule violation issue.
Needless to say, the Nepalese authorities need to address the loose practises of their airlines if they want their tourism industry to survive. Sadly, going by road in Nepal is even more dangerous!