Nepal to introduce air crash investigation regulation

Nepal will introduce an air crash investigation regulation in May in a bid to minimise air crashes in future, officials said Monday.

Nepal's aviation ministry claimed that once introduced, the regulation would help to bring down the number of air crashes by 20 to 25 percent in Nepal, Xinhua reported.

"In line with comments from International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) that Nepal has made zero progress in avoiding air crashes from 2009 to 2013, the new regulation is being introduced," Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, a senior official at the aviation ministry told Xinhua.

He said the envisioned regulation was crucial to bring down the number of air crashes in Nepal and to abide by the standard of ICAO.

"The final draft of the regulation has been prepared and we will submit it to the parliament within two weeks for endorsement," Lamichhane added.

Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, chief of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), said the new regulation would help to adopt modern and effective approach to probe air accidents by engaging required technical experts.

He said it would help to strictly implement the recommendations made by the probe committee and to learn from the past mistakes.

"This will eventually help to promote air safety in Nepal by decreasing the number of air accidents," he said.

Given the poor air safety scenario in Nepal, the European Union (EU) has barred all Nepal-based airlines from European skies.

The Feb 16 aircraft accident in Nepal that killed all 18 on board has prompted stakeholders to believe that the EU would not relax the ban soon.

Nepal has recorded more than 70 air crashes in which more than 700 people died in 60 years of its aviation history.