Nepal - Twin Otter with 21 aboard missing, AP is reporting
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aterpster :
Yep, I know all too well about both ( first the change in the virtual glide slope, then the RNP-AR) But if you read carefully the accident report of the TK A330 you will see the limits of the Nepalese CAA. But I do not blame them ,after these recent series of accidents we should be more inclined to help them than to blame them.
the terrain won't permit siting an ILS. The government paid to have a French IFP developer design a quite good RNP AR approach to Runway 02
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ATC Watcher:
The database error at the time of the THY accident did not cause the accident. In any case, THY's flight operations management would have caught the database error had they "bench" validated the amendment to the procedure for the displaced threshold.
RNP AR is supposed to go through database validation with any amendment.
Yep, I know all too well about both ( first the change in the virtual glide slope, then the RNP-AR) But if you read carefully the accident report of the TK A330 you will see the limits of the Nepalese CAA. But I do not blame them ,after these recent series of accidents we should be more inclined to help them than to blame them.
RNP AR is supposed to go through database validation with any amendment.
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aterpster:
Of course, but I was not referring to that but to all the small failures of the CAAN all along the report , some of them summarized in the Conclusions and safety recommendations pages in the end of the report :
From memory : ATIS not operating/ not daily checked , MET offfice not understating SPECI, , APP ATC not passing current Wx, , AIS issuing/cancelling AICs not understanding Airac Cycles, lack training courses for controllers , etc.. the 2 sets of coordinates for the threshold is only one small part. But again to be fair, what the CAAN did here is not much different from what is done in most of the poor other countries in the world.
In a fully developed country the airport would have been moved 20 Km East in the valley ( old plan) a long time ago. But lack of funds prevents it, now after the latest earthquake, this plan is moved decades again.
Back to this Tara Air accident : Domestic Air travel in Nepal is the only alternative to days of bus on treacherous roads in the country and the only way except walking, to reach some communities in the winter. Plus a lot of these small airlines make most of their money carrying tourists. Pressure to fly is great. The Pilots are good, some very good even, so it works most of the time, but the regulator is weak , very weak because aviation is a must, it brings desperately needed foreign currencies via the tourists and there is no alternative.
Of course, but I was not referring to that but to all the small failures of the CAAN all along the report , some of them summarized in the Conclusions and safety recommendations pages in the end of the report :
From memory : ATIS not operating/ not daily checked , MET offfice not understating SPECI, , APP ATC not passing current Wx, , AIS issuing/cancelling AICs not understanding Airac Cycles, lack training courses for controllers , etc.. the 2 sets of coordinates for the threshold is only one small part. But again to be fair, what the CAAN did here is not much different from what is done in most of the poor other countries in the world.
In a fully developed country the airport would have been moved 20 Km East in the valley ( old plan) a long time ago. But lack of funds prevents it, now after the latest earthquake, this plan is moved decades again.
Back to this Tara Air accident : Domestic Air travel in Nepal is the only alternative to days of bus on treacherous roads in the country and the only way except walking, to reach some communities in the winter. Plus a lot of these small airlines make most of their money carrying tourists. Pressure to fly is great. The Pilots are good, some very good even, so it works most of the time, but the regulator is weak , very weak because aviation is a must, it brings desperately needed foreign currencies via the tourists and there is no alternative.
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I've no been on an internal flight in Nepal. but the buses were terrifying in part because the roads in the Sivalik Hills leave so much to be desired. We went along a road where a section was clearly not so far from falling, and the remains of vehicles that have come off the road are visible all over the place. Down on the Ganges flood plain it was somewhat less terrifying.
