Twotter Crash in Nepal

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BRITON AND 17 OTHERS KILLED IN NEPAL PLANE CRASH
A Briton, an American and 13 Germans are among 18 people killed after a small plane crashed in Nepal. The aeroplane went down as it approached the western resort town of Pokhara. There were 15 passengers and three crew on board the Canadian-built Twin Otter belonging to the private carrier, Shines. An airline official says bad weather is hampering search efforts. The official says the plane was approaching Pokhara, 125 miles west of the capital Kathmandu, when air traffic controllers lost contact. The flight was coming from Jomson, a popular trekking route and Hindu religious site. The official says the passenger list is not yet available and it's not yet known if any foreigners were on board.

source: http://www.msn.co.uk/news/panews04/

[N380UA]

A Briton, an American and 13 Germans are among 18 people killed

The official says the passenger list is not yet available and it's not yet known if any foreigners were on board.

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[compressor stall]

Read the article again.

The information at the start was obviously obtained somewhere else to the airline offical....

RIP all.

[railwaysengineer]

http://www.focus.de/G/GN/gn.htm?snr=110101&streamsnr=9&q=1
Sorry, is in german language. Confirms the crash.

[MrWooby]

Sad to hear about such a waste of life.

I recently trekked around Mt Dhaligiri in Nepal and returned via the Jomsom to Pokhara treking route. The route is quite heavily flown especially in the morning, as I believe local wind conditions prohibit landings at Jomson in the afternoon. I was quite amazed to see Twin Otters and Dorniers flying down the Kali Gandaki gorge (which is fairly wide) very low and below total cloud cover. With rising terrain entering the cloud either side of track. In the early morning at Poon Hill which is further down the gorge, aircraft where regularly flying at no more than a 100-300 feet agl as they crossed the last area of high terrain before the terrain fell away down to Pokhara. I kept thinking about what would happen if they suddenly entered IMC conditions or suffered an engine failure.

[ETOPS]

Just a quick scan of the database reveals flying in Nepal to be quite risky.....

18/ 1/99 Cessna 208 Necon 5 fatalities
7/ 7/99 Boeing 727 Hinduja 5 fatalities
5/ 9/99 HS748 Necon 15 fatalities
25/12/99 DHC 6 Skyline 10 fatalities
27/ 7/00 " Royal Nepal 25 fatalities
17/ 7/02 " Skyline 4 fatalities
2/ 8/02 " Shangri la 18 fatalities

This list does not include the major disasters of a few years ago when a Thai A310 and a PIA A300 both crashed at Khatmandu within a few weeks of each other with the loss of 280 souls in total........

[Sheep Guts]

Terrible record you have compiled ETOPS.

God rest their souls

[Ignition Override]

Yep: As stated above, the German article claims in bold letters that the route is difficult (schwer) because of the deep gulley/ravine (Schlucht) between the two mountains X and Y.

Do the airlines which operate into that area use charts such as Jeppesen, which would require very specific instrument procedures to be used even in VMC? Do they have extra training requirements for Special Airports? Even Birmingham, AL (BHM) and Harrisburg/Middletown, PA (MDT) are on our list. That should give laymen an idea of what can be classified as potentially hazardous. Journalists and others unfamiliar with the subject: ask a pilot to look at the Jeppesen charts for Eagle, CO and Missoula, MT for an idea of what can be required in mountains. My airline requires each 757 pilot to retrain once a year for this very demanding airport, in addition to the normal events-the other fleets (i.e. A-319/320) are not allowed to go there, mostly due to the second segment climb requirements. On the other hand, we have our share of tragedies in rough terrain despite charts: a chartered Learjet tried a circling approach at night into Eagle many years ago! Check what the (military) government-issued NOS charts stated years ago in very condensed small print, with no graphic procedure at all, when an Air Force C-130 crashed while departing Cheyenne, WY.

I asked somebody at MAC (now AMC) headquarters at Scott AFB years ago via e-mail, as to why the AF did not switch to Jeppesen charts which seem to have more graphic procedures available than the NOS, and the answer was very convoluted and something to do with red tape etc.

Were both engines on the Twin Otter operating with normal power?

[I. M. Esperto]

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?newslett=1&click_id=3&art_id=qw1030184820481B262&set_id=1

18 killed.