AVIATION
Nepal Airlines RA 401 Fails to Take-Off Twice for Bangkok | 152 Passengers Stranded at TIA
Since the corporation does not have another serviceable aircraft, it has not been decided whether these passengers will fly on time.
A narrow-body aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation, Airbus A320-233 call sign ‘9N-AKW’ which was about to fly from Kathmandu to Bangkok with 152 passengers, failed to take off twice on Monday, 8th January today.
The corporation’s narrowbody flight, RA-401, failed to take off twice, according to Subas Jha, a spokesman for Tribhuvan International Airport. As a result, NAC is once more disembarking passengers at 5 PM and taking them back to the terminal building.
“For the first time, at 2:30 PM, the A320 of NAC was pushed back from the apron to taxi-way. Due to technical problems, the crew returned it to the apron,” said spokesman Jha. Denoting that the technical problem has recurred, the aircraft has been grounded at Parking Bay No.6.
Since the corporation does not have another serviceable aircraft, it has not been decided whether these passengers will fly on time. Ramesh Poudel, the spokesperson of Nepal Airlines Corporation, said that information was received that there was a problem with the hydraulic system of the aircraft.
An employee involved in the flight said that if spare parts were found at the corporation’s airport office, it would take three hours to repair them, but due to the flight time of the crew, the flight to and from Bangkok would be affected.
Lucky Purve, a passenger on that flight, said that the passengers were protesting at the check-in counter when the airline did not take off on time, which was supposed to take off at 2:40 PM.
“We were put on and off the aircraft twice,” said Purve, a passenger bound to Bangkok on the same RA 401 flight. There is no plan to fly another aircraft. The head of the customer service department, Rina Rai, has not shown up yet for the stranding passenger despite being called several times by them.
Nepal Airlines Corporation has been lately noticed for many such technical faults resulting in delay. These technical problems are in the limelight on a regular basis these days. With such huge passenger flow at TIA, Nepal Airlines is still unable to establish a good market among other international airlines. Less number of fleet has always been the problem during such technical delays. Leasing narrow bodies is lately in talk and if it works, it would definitely help NAC to rearrange the fleet in such conditions.