Nepal Airlines troubled with another serious incident
March 15, 2017 Kathmandu
Nepal Airlines Airbus A320 “Sagarmatha” with registration number “9N-AKW” suffered a fuel leak incident while undergoing regular maintenance at TIA. According to the source, the incident occurred between 7pm to 8:30pm yesterday when a team of aircraft maintenance engineers were working to change the booster pump of the aircraft.
“The Airbus A320 had 5 tons of fuel loaded while undergoing maintenance work,” said spokesperson of TIA Mr. Prem Nath Thakur, “All of the fuel spewed on parking bay. The emergency response teams were deployed soon after the incident and the cleaning work was completed by 9pm. The incident did not obstruct any flight operations though.”
Currently the aircraft is grounded in the temporary parking bay 11 at TIA. A team from Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) immediately visited and inspected the scene. Also they have issued an order for investigation.
The reason behind the incident is intended to be the procedural errors by the aircraft maintenance team. NAC will come up with preliminary report after inquiring the maintenance team involved in the incident.
Earlier another narrow-body A320 aircraft of the flag carrier named “Lumbini” was grounded after being hit by a bird on 6th of March during its flight to Kathmandu from New Delhi. It has already continued its operation after the replacement of slat.
Back to back incidents have been frustrating the flag carrier worsening its performance.
