Nepal Airlines Boeing 757 makes emergency landing in Kathmandu
Nepal Airline’s Boeing 757,9N-ACB made an emergency landing Sunday around midnight after a fault in its pressure control system was diagnosed. It is reported that the aircraft travelling from Kathmandu to Doha had 95 passengers on-board and all of them are safe.
The problem came about when the aircraft elevated to a height of 12,000 feet. It was just 10 minutes after the take-off from Tribhuvan International Airport that the system showed an error in its operation, according to NAC’s Engineering Department. Captain S.S. Rai and Soni Rana were on duty yesterday when they were notified of the problem in the cockpit. They then reacted quickly to contact the ATC in TIA and perform a rapid decent.
A normal flight cabin in an aircraft has a pressure equivalent to the natural pressure at 8,000 feet sighting it as the pressure value comfortable for passengers when in flight. Any defect in the system would result in various effects in the passengers like dizziness, nausea, etc. Some minor problems were reported with some passengers in flight yesterday and thus were taken to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital in Sinamangal for checkup soon after the plane landed. All passengers were then transported to a hotel by NAC. All passengers have been noted safe after a follow-up by the doctors on Monday afternoon. The problem in the aircraft has been solved by NAC this afternoon and thus all the passengers will be flying to Doha on October 26th Monday at 11 pm.
The fault diagnosed in the pressure control system is the first of its type as informed by NAC’s Engineering Department. They added that the pressure control system had seen errors but not of similar type in the past. A rapid decent was carried out for the first time after any problem in the pressure control system.
The same aircraft had been used yesterday afternoon to airlift fuel from Kolkata yesterday and is scheduled to carry out the task on a regular basis. The grounding of the aircraft had many in the nation’s aviation sector sweating hence the news of its successful maintenance brings a sense of relief. The crew on-board the aircraft as well as the maintenance team of NAC deserve credit for handling this situation and resuming operation in a quick timeframe.
