Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) has recently dispatched a group of 20 people of technical team for the inspection of its Boeing 757-2F8 ‘9N-ACB’ under the C-Check maintenance at Singapore spending a huge amount.
NAC has sponsored the five-star hotels in the country along with the airfare ticket. A team of 20 members were dispatched to Singapore while half of them have already come back to Nepal but remaining others are reported to have been still roaming around Singapore.
The 190 seated Boeing 727-2F8 ‘9N-ACB’ is expected to arrive Nepal from Singapore on 3rd of September, 2017. C Check is the advanced maintenance check requiring a majority of the aircraft’s components to be inspected. It is performed approximately every 20-24 months or a specific amount of actual flight hours or as per the requirement details from the manufacturer. Due to the complexity of C-check, it is carried out in a hangar at a maintenance base having huge space.
According to a source, NAC along with director from various divisions such as engineering department, quality control, airworthiness along with two Managing Directors from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) was dispatched on this trip being NAC as a sponsor.
The expected cost for the abroad trip was around 2 Million Nepalese Rupee noted the source. He added, “This delegation cannot visit the hangar where the aircraft is being repaired, so I don’t know what the purpose of the visit is.”
The source said NAC provided a daily allowance of $100 per day as well as covered all costs of all its 18 employees and the two high-ranking officials of CAAN. “NAC has also covered the costs of the five-star hotels that the directors are staying as well as for the two-way travel costs for all the staff,” revealed the source. NAC has estimated that the cost of fully repairing the aircraft would be around Rs 300 million.
“This trip to Singapore to see the progress of the aircraft is against the laws. The decision to send them by the MD is highly irresponsible,” said a director at NAC requesting anonymity.
*Photo © Jakkrit
