Biratnagar Airport was extremely hit by continuous and heavy rain and was submerged by the unruly flood. The entire aerodrome along with terminal and entry points of Biratnagar Domestic Airport was completely under the water resulted by the excessive rain which compelled the airport to shut down. The heavy water mass at the airport gathered after the continuous rainfall of 12 August monsoon had also obstructed overall flight operation of the regional airport.
Previously entire domestic operators had canceled all of their flights to the airport scheduled from12 August, however; the increasing flood level had dropped down from 14 of August after the rain stopped showering the region. The water though disappeared but still, the airport was left entirely occupied by the mud brought by the unruly flood. The runway and the aerodrome along with the terminal were previously under mud brought by the flood. The airport authorities had planned to clear up the mud and prepare the airport for flight operation from 16 August but layers topping of mud had made the cleaning job more difficult resulting in a delay of the planned airport operation.
As reported by Dinesh Koirala, Air Traffic Controller at VNVT, the mud clearing job was initiated jointly by deploying Nepal Army and Airport staff from 15 August and the airport as by today has almost cleared up the thick layer of mud collected at runway and apron but final polishing and instrument check job has yet to be initiated. Besides the arrival terminal and the entry part of the airport is yet to be cleaned, he added.
As per his reporting, the airport is much likely to be cleaned up completely by tomorrow by accomplishing the polishing and instrument checking followed by comforting of the arrival and entry points. In addition, Dinesh also stated AviatioNepal that the airport will begin back its operation from 19 August Saturday.
The catastrophic calamity has deprived the local citizens of the region out of air communication to connect the capital.Besides Shree has also planned to take off its obstructed CRJ Aircraft from the airport today for Bhadrapur. The aircraft had been halting in Biratnagar due technical errors followed by obstructive flood. The aircraft was on its proving flight to Biratnagar and technical error had obstructed the CRJ aircraft to fly back.
Flight operation of Jetstream belonging to Yeti had made the last take off from the airport on 11 August late evening since then not a single aircraft has made any take from the regional airport in Biratnagar. At normal days numerous domestic airline operators conduct around 12-20 flights both charter and commercial to Biratnagar Airport.
