Kathmandu, May 1:

The national flag carrier truly appears to be in the red as both its aircrafts Boeing 757 have been forced to go off air due to technical snags.

While one carrier which had developed cracks in its wings was taken to Brunei on Sunday, the other one which had suffered a breakdown in New Delhi but was pressed back into service has been sent for maintenance work in Kathmandu, informed Bishnu Prasad Basyal, commercial director, Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC).

Understandably, the aircraft sent to Brunei would take at least three to four weeks to be back in action. However, the one undergoing maintenance at NAC’s engineering office is expected to be back in service within a couple of days, informed the NAC official.

It may be recalled last Monday, one of the two Boeings 757 of NAC had to be grounded at Tribhuvan International Airport as cracks were noticed on its flaps. The second and the only other aircraft of the national flag carrier was unable to fly back from New Delhi on Tuesday as the circuit breaker switch did not work causing a starting problem. The aircraft, however, returned the next day after the switch was reportedly replaced by the engineers rushed in from Nepal. No sooner had the aircraft landed on home turf, than it was pressed back into service and sent to Delhi, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok the same day.

Refuting any suggestion for an investigation of the aircraft in Nepal before pressing it back into service, a senior official had then claimed: “It has been given a thorough check-up in Delhi before flying back to Kathmandu. So we do not think it requires another investigation here.” But it seems the aircraft’s problems were far from tackled and hence had to be grounded within four days of operation.

Left with only one aircraft at hand, NAC, last week, had cancelled its flights to Shanghai-Osaka and Dubai and was reworking flight schedules to other destinations. But Raju Bahadur K C, director corporate at NAC had assured the situation would soon be under control once the replacement aircraft that had been requisitioned arrive next week. NAC has reportedly been trying hard to lease an aircraft from a foreign airlines.

Most senior NAC officials remained incommunicado on Monday as they were busy in meetings through the day. Meanwhile, with both aircrafts out of operation, the situation has evidently precipitated into a deeper crisis for the country’s sole flag carrier than expected.