KATHMANDU, FEBRUARY 22

The final draft report of the Tara Air 9N-AET aircraft that crashed at Tirkhe Dhunga while en route to Jomsom from Pokhara on 29 May 2022 blames largely the flight crew for the fatal accident.

The report published by the Accident Investigation Commission formed to look into the accident points at the flight crew's failure to maintain and monitor the proper course while inadvertently flying in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) with the terrain awareness and warning system (TAWS) inhibited, resulting in a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) as the probable cause and contributing factor for the crash.

Issuing a statement, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Civil Aviation said that the investigation was conducted by the AIC with the assistance of US-based National Transport Safety Board (NTSB) and that the report would be sent to International Civil Aviation Organisation and concerned nations for review with a time limit of 60 days as per the ICAO Annex 13 provision. It said the final report of the crash investigation would be made public in the next two months.

The report lists several contributing factors for the crash: the flight crew's failure to follow the standard operating procedure (SOP); flight operation with TAWS inhibited during deteriorating weather condition; crew's loss of situational awareness; less experienced co-pilot for that sector; poor CRM (crew resource management); PIC (pilot-in-command) undertaking the whole cockpit duties that impaired his performance; and underutilisation of the available navigation instruments during the flight.

The aircraft carrying 23 people, including three crew members, en route to Jomsom in Mustang had crashed at Tirkhe Dhunga of Dana VDC, Myagdi, killing everyone on board.

Apart from one Chinese and one Kuwaiti national, the remaining 21 people on board - including two infants - were Nepalis.

The plane was flying towards Jomsom - the gateway for trekking to Muktinath and Lo-Manthang.

The crashed aircraft was a Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter 400 owned by Tara Air, a domestic carrier, which provides service in Nepal's mountainous region. The Tara Air aircraft had taken off from Pokhara on its scheduled flight (TA 193) to Jomsom at 7:50am. The aircraft went out of contact 10 minutes after leaving the Pokhara airport.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 23, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.