KATHMANDU: A Nepal Airlines passenger plane recently flew from Kathmandu to Dubai with its engine thrust reverser locked, it has been revealed.

According to a highly-placed source at the Nepal Airlines Corporation, the Airbus 320 flight from Tribhuvan International Airport to Dubai International Airport had failed to deploy a thrust reverser upon landing in Dubai on October 16 while the lock out pin was not removed after the maintenance work.

The revelation has come only after the NAC’s Quality Assurance and Flight Safety Department sought for written clarification from a team of engineers who were involved in maintenance prior to releasing the flight for Dubai.

“The NAC summoned a maintenance team under an Airbus engineer for clarification over such negligence,” the source added.

The flight was piloted by senior captain Vijay Lama while maintenance engineers at the Dubai International Airport had removed the safety pin after making a safe landing with over 100 passengers.

“It is a sheer negligence in part of the maintenance team,” a senior official at NAC admitted.

Thrust reversers mainly provide a significant way of increasing the rate of deceleration to reduce the landing distance. A 320 aircraft also received smoke alerts repeatedly in the recent days, he claimed.

A senior captain with an international airline said that flying with the thrust reverser locked out restricted things like accepting land and holding short clearances. The lock pin tool was often used to prevent the thrust reverser translating sleeves from actuating during maintenance, he added.

According to an official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the regulatory body also took note of the issue.

“CAAN is waiting for NAC’s internal investigation report to initiate further actions,” a senior director said.