Nepal Authorities Pull Black Box from Crashed Bangladeshi Airliner

Sharif Khiam
2018.03.13
Dhaka
180313_US-Bangla_crash_1000.jpg People in Kathmandu light candles in memory of those killed in Monday’s crash of a Bangladeshi airliner in Nepal’s capital, March 13, 2018.
AP

Nepalese authorities on Tuesday recovered the black box from the wreckage of a US-Bangla Airlines plane, a day after it crashed in Kathmandu, killing at least 51 people, officials said.

The recovered box, which consists of a flight-data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, will be a key part of an investigation by civil aviation authorities into what caused Bombardier Q400 turboprop to crash as it tried to land at Tribhuvan International Airport.

But they won’t be able to interview the pilots because both were killed. The first officer died on Monday and the captain succumbed to his injuries the next day, officials said.

On Tuesday, local aviation officials and airline representatives again traded blame for whether pilot error or a wrong instruction relayed to the cockpit from the airport’s traffic control tower contributed to the disaster, the deadliest airliner crash at the airport in 26 years.

Flight BS 211 was cleared to land from the southern end of the runway but instead approached Tribhuvan’s single runway from the northern end, Rajkumar Chhetri, the airport’s general manager, told reporters Tuesday.

“Our airport control staff is internationally-trained. We had over-communicated everything to the pilots,” Chhetri said. “We repeatedly asked the pilots to land from the correct side of the runway. … The plane’s landing alignment was not right.”

The Bangladeshi airliner slammed into a field and burst into flames while landing during a flight to Nepal’s capital from Dhaka, officials said.

Meanwhile in Dhaka, Kamrul Islam, the airline’s spokesman, told a news conference that the crash could have taken place because of “miscommunication” from the airport’s air traffic control.

“Our pilot had no fault,” he said. “There was confusion in the instruction coming from the ATC.”

Islam was referring to an audio recording of English-language communications between the control tower and Flight BS 21 that was posted on YouTube within hours of the crash.

Capt. Abib Sultan, the plane’s pilot, died Tuesday at a Kathmandu hospital where he had been taken in critical condition after the crash, Islam said. The co-pilot who died on Monday was identified as Prithula Rashid.

“Sultan was experienced, quite familiar with the airfield and the aircraft,” Islam said. “Rashid was also specially trained to make landings at the airport. This is mandatory for any pilot to fly over there. She also made landings at the airport before.”

Islam confirmed reports from Nepal that the plane’s black box had been found.

“To ascertain why it happened, we have to examine the black box. It needs time,” he said. “We want a fair investigation.”

Sanjiv Gautam, director general of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, rejected as “absolutely incorrect” the airline’s allegations that air traffic control had given the pilots wrong signals.

“The weather was clear. The pilot had minimum five-kilometer [3-mile] visibility. The pilots confirmed that the runway was visible. We have proof of them confirming that. The pilots were not following our instructions,” Gautam said.

The plane was carrying 71 people, including four crewmembers and 67 passengers, consisting of 33 from Nepal, 32 Bangladeshis, one from China and one from the Maldives.

So far, the death toll includes 28 Bangladeshis, 22 Nepalis and a Chinese passenger, according to Nepal’s state-run news agency, Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS).

In a statement US-Bangla Airlines, said it would cover hospital expenses of those injured and it also promised to pay U.S. $25,000 in compensation to relatives of each of the passengers who were killed.

Kamran Reza Chowdhury in Dhaka contributed to this report.

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