Death In the skies of Nepal

I am not the one to eulogies untimely death in any form if there are means of preventing it thus the death of 15 persons of different nationalities was saddening to the ears and the rest that were injured can be called lucky in a plane crash of its nature in the hills of Jomsom which is the highest air field in Nepal if not in the world.

It takes skills to fly in such terrain that only pilots that are matured enough should be allowed. The reason for this is that death caused to though immaturity not only causes the one who is at the helm but also of those he has under his control. This makes the people who allow him to take the steering wheel in the first place culpable as well as those who are responsible for the plane to be flying in top gear.

Why is it so? All because if I happen to be one of the passengers on the plane, I first of all happen to pay well for the flight and not for my death caused due to the neglect of the pilot as well as the ground crew. The company who owns the plane is responsible for both and no means of compensation will make up for the untimely deaths of the 15 people.

As I have come to understand through the media that as the pilot was above the air space getting ready to land, he found a glitch in the landing gear and radio Pokhara (the air field he had taken off from), to return but as he may have though it was a minor problem he would make it to the present air field but then got the message to return. This was the pilots folly, even though I am not a pilot, I have some knowledge of using my bicycle on the roads of Kathmandu, which has taught me to know my environment of the roads that I use daily so that in cases of emergency I will be well prepared to save myself if the worst comes to the worst. I believe that it should be more stringent in aeronautics. So the pilot should have know that it was fool hardy to have gone into land in such terrain where the air field has mountains on all four sides. I would not have done that and would have remained at higher altitude waiting for orders from ground base as to what I should do next. Why, because if the air field is boxed in by mountain side, it takes a bit of time and distance for a plane to make a turn and how ever skilful one may be, there are 50% chances of either happening. If you escape with you and all aboard are lucky but if not, it is the worst for all.

Finally, I believe that the deaths of those innocent people is all due to neglect and I can refer to it as the dereliction of duty in the air authority of Nepal, that wake up to a happening when it is too late and become visionaries when all are going fine. In the last one year, there has been more that three air crashes and two by the latest air company in Nepal. Impunity exists, nothing can be done about it.

Steven William Pitts