Chinese manufactured 4 Y-12E aircraft brought by Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has been grounded from last 5 days following extreme factionalism between the pilots and also due to weak management by the corporations’ administration. As per the corporation, the aircraft won’t fly for minimum of next 10 days.
According to flight roster provided by the corporations operation department for next 10 days, the 16 seater Y-12E planes will be grounded for 10 days due to lack of capable pilots to fly the aircraft. An official at corporations’ operation committee said that factionalism among pilots of operational department grounded the flight.
According to the corporations’ source, among the 5 pilots who can fly the aircraft, instructor pilot Ang Nuri Sherpa and captain Anish Man Shakya have already resigned while other two Nipendra Bhattari and Sanjay Bade Shrestha have taken sick leave and Udhav Ghimire is deprived of flying as corporation haven’t updated the license. The license needs to be updated by the instructor pilot and it is the work of the corporation.
Newly brought Nepal Airlines’ Harbin Y-12e ‘9N-AKV’ at NAC Hangar, TIA
Department head Subash Rijal said the dissatisfaction in the corporation has started for sending only those who are near and familiar with the group.
There are two factional group in the corporation; namely Rijal Group and Thakali Group. The leader of the Rijal group is the current operation department director Subash Rijal who is Airbus Captain whereas the leader of Thakali Group is ex-director of the operation department Rabindra Serchan who is Boeing captain. Due to factionalism among these two groups, there are no regular flights of the corporation.
Last week, three parties, including UML near staff union, pressurized the corporation General manager Sugat Ratna Kansakar and the operation department to increase the flight number as well as to increase the number of flight after the increment in the fleet.
The government had made a contract of 6 billion 67 million loans with the Chinese Government to purchase 2 MA-60 and 4 Y-12 E aircraft in loan and grant agreement in order to provide relief to peoples of rural areas at reasonable price. All those aircraft were bought inside the 4 years of the agreement whose customs duty has not been submitted yet.
