KATHMANDU, Feb 3: The Nepal Airlines Corporation has finally found replacement tyres for its aircraft which has been grounded at the Narita International Airport for over 10 hours due a sudden puncture of its tyre right before take-off.
A wide-body aircraft of Nepal Airlines (RA 434) which had reached Narita on Sunday, suffered this puncture.
Spokesperson for the NAC Ramesh Poudel informed Republica that the aircraft is currently undergoing a tyre change in order to take off from Narita to Kathmandu at the earliest possible time.
"The wheel of the aircraft flattened, ‘punctured’, as we commonly called it, right before taking off from Narita Airport in Japan," he said, "The aircraft will take off soon after the technical team finishes replacing the tyre."
The aircraft was supposed to depart from Japan at 9:25 am local time. It is 8:00 pm in Japan now.
The flight was scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu at 2:50 pm. The plane, an A330-200 Series 9NLY (Annapurna), was to leave for Kathmandu with 262 passengers.
Spokesperson Poudel told Republica that the corporation has accommodated the passengers in hotels nearby the airport. “Since we have to collect the passengers from the hotels, it will take some time before the flight can take off even after the tire change is completed,” he said.
He added that efforts are underway to schedule the flight for Monday. “We do not plan to delay the flight by a day,” Poudel said.
It takes around 7 hours for a flight outbound from Narita to reach Kathmandu. Even if the NAC successfully changes the tyre, collects the passenger and the flight takes off half hour later, which is quite unlikely, the flight will reach the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) only after 11 pm.
The TIA has been operational only from 7 am to 11 pm since Saturday. According to spokesperson for the TIA Rinji Sherpa, the possibility of the aircraft landing at TIA after 11 pm is very low.