Bid to recruit ‘substandard’ engineers opposed

Kathmandu, September 20:

Advocate Sanumaiya Maharjan today filed a petition at the Supreme Court against the Nepal Airlines Corporation’s (NAC) bid to appoint “underqualified persons” as airlines maintenance engineers.

In the petition filed against Nepal Civil Aviation Authority, the NAC chairman Madhav Prasad Ghimire and General Manager Gautam Das Shrestha, the NAC board of directors and the Vacancies Fulfilment Committee, advocate Maharjan has claimed that the NAC is preparing to appoint underqualified persons, thereby putting lives of air passengers at risk and that the vacancy call should be quashed.

“The NAC vacancy advertisement published on August 31 to appoint nine A and C engineers and seven Avionics Engineer to work for aircraft maintenance has mentioned that anyone with qualification of BE or equivalent in Aeronautical/Mechanical engineering and of BE or equivalent in Aeronautical (Avionics)/Electrical/Electronics/Communication are eligible to apply for the posts respectively; but this is against the NAC rule itself, which requires that anyone applying for the posts requiring to work for aircraft maintenance should be qualified as Aircraft Maintenance Engineer (AME),” the petitioner has said.

Maintenance of aircraft by underqualified persons poses risk to passengers, she has said, adding that NAC is preparing to appoint aircraft maintenance engineers who do not meet the qualification as required by the NAC Regulation of Employees and the Civil Aviation Act 2053 BS and Regulation 2058 BS.

“Only qualified AMEs should be appointed to the posts and not BEs in Aeronautical Avoinics because the NAC authorities are going to post the new appointees to support aircraft maintenance,” the petition stated. “This is violation of the national law and international standards,” the petitioner added.