Kathmandu, April 24

The recent Malindo Air’s runway excursion at Tribhuvan International Airport has raised  questions over the capability of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the aerodrome service provider, as well as the ground handling agency, Nepal Airlines Corporation.

Experts have pointed that the incident unimaginably ensued chaos at the sole international airport for hours despite the fact that the B737 aircraft weighing just over 80 tonnes, fully loaded-only one third of that of a wide body like 777, was not damaged allowed for its rather easy removal.

An aircraft rejecting a take-off is not an unanticipated phenomenon and the aircraft are designed accordingly to sustain the accompanying stresses on its structures, while the flight crews are required by safety regulations to be trained for such an eventuality regularly, according to senior captain YK Bhattarai.

A typical safe aborted take-off at maximum speed specified by the aircraft manufacturer allows  the aircraft to come to a complete stop within the remaining available runway, otherwise the aircraft would not be allowed to fly to such an airport by its regulators, he shared.

“Though the decision to abort a take-off is the Pilot in Command’s prerogative and is exercised with utmost caution, the chances of an aircraft coming to a halt within the runway depend on several factors pertaining to the aerodrome,” another senior captain explained, adding that the Malindo Air incident, with a comparatively ‘lighter’ aircraft overrunning the 10,000 ft long runway has raised several questions.

According to him, major among them is the runway surface friction that is responsible for providing traction for slowing down the aircraft while applying the brakes.

Nearly two years ago, this daily had reported on the lack of  publication of runway friction data for TIA runway despite mounting rubber deposits on the southern end of the runway, although two expensive runway friction measuring machines were procured for a small fortune and several technicians were trained abroad.

“Later, about two years ago, the rubber deposits removal was once attempted, although they continue to rebuild and once again pose substantial threat to air safety as the Malindo Air incident has proved,” a senior TIA officer said. At TIA most commercial jets land on the southern end of the runway, so the rubber deposit build-up is but natural. It is these deposits compounded with improper runway surface that clearly prevented the Malindo Air flight from stopping within the runway.

“It is common knowledge that the runway surface is degrading alarmingly due to repeated overloading and sub-standard repairs, with the CAAN Board having recently allocated Rs 100 million for its emergency repairs,” the officer said, adding that the tender for the repairs were clearly intended for local contractors with doubtful expertise in international airport runway repairs with an eye on receiving higher commission.

Besides, the approval of an air carrier’s flights to an airport is contingent on its furnishing the airport’s authorities with a sound plan for removal of its disabled aircraft, just in case. “The ground handling agency for the airlines usually is expected to be capable of doing the same, unless a specialised agency is available at the airport with necessary resources, but the government-owned NAC’s monopoly of ground handling services for foreign air operators at TIA, without adequate resources, is surely contributing to this mess,” a senior CAAN official claimed. With CAAN having learnt little from the Turkish Airlines incident of 2015, the approval of airlines still continues to be on fishy basis — political connections and palm-greasing. “While the enviable TIA general manager position accompanied with a huge financial clout — billions of rupees worth budget for procurement of goods and services — continuing to entice those eligible from the top ranks of the CAAN officials, its only those with sufficient political patronage, regardless of management acumen and credentials who bag the position,” the official concluded.