A week ago, TK726 flight of Turkish Airlines Airbus 330-303 from Istanbul to kathmandu, veered off the runway while making an attempt to land during low visibility at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA). The aircraft’s nose landing gear, fuselage and engines are damaged. The aircraft has been grounded for uncertain time at the East Helipad of TIA by the government of Nepal and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal(CAAN) without considering any consequences and problems that the helicopter charter companies are facing nowadays.
Prior to placing such a wide body aircraft at East helipad, it would have been genuine to know the problems earlier and listen to the opinions / views of helicopter companies. Currently, East helipad of TIA has become more conjusted as crashed A330 of Turkish Airlines has been placed at Helipad limiting the area. Consequently, helicopter need to be towed to open area before takeoff and after the flight as helicopters are numerous as well. This is creating burden for the personnel of helicopter companies.
In Nepal, helicopters are playing vital role in immediate medical evacuation as most of the places of Nepal are not connected by roadways. Neither there are hospitals nor proper medical team for the treatment of patients. So, while flying out for rescue, timing is necessary and each second play vital role. Therefore government of Nepal and concerned authorities mustnot have played with the life of general public.
Several flights are being affected which is wasting the time and money of charter companies.
