NAC likely to hire an engine on lease

KATHMANDU, Aug 9: Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is mulling measures to replace the engine of the aircraft, which has been grounded for the last three days after problems in the heart of the airplane. [break]



On Wednesday, the temperature in the engine of one of NAC´s Boeing 757s had shot up to abnormal level soon after taking off from Kathmandu´s Tribhuvan International Airport. This had forced the pilots to make an emergency landing. Since then the plane has not come into operation, disrupting many of its scheduled international flights.



“We are now thinking of getting an engine on lease,” KB Limbu, managing director of NAC, told myrepublica.com. “We are currently communicating with European companies that offer such service.” If it is affordable, NAC will then ask for quotations from various companies and hire an engine on lease from the one that quotes the lowest price.



In between, NAC has already contacted a maintenance company in Spain to repair one of its spare engines. This out-of-order spare engine is currently lying in Hong Kong and will be sent to Spain in a few days. “It might take at least one-and-a-half month to get that repaired,” PB Kansakar, a high ranking official of NAC´s engineering department, said.



In the meantime, NAC is planning to issue a tender notice asking interested companies to bid for carrying out repair works on the engine which went kaput on Wednesday.



Although what exactly went wrong in the engine and what led the temperature to shoot up beyond normal level is still not known, it is certain that the management had clearly ignored to check the flying hours of the aircraft, which had already shouldered its share of burden.



According to Kansakar, aircraft engines have to be overhauled after flying for around 10,000 to 12,000 hours. The aircraft, in which the engine problem was detected, had already flown for 11,000 hours and should have been sent for maintenance in March.



“I don´t know why the management didn´t send the engine then, as I had been removed from my post at that time,” Limbu said.



On July 21, another Boeing 757 of NAC had made an emergency landing in Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu after encountering a leak in its hydraulic system. The plane, on its way to Kathmandu from New Delhi, was carrying 35 passengers and 12 crew members. NAC currently has two Boeing 757s, both of which are more than 20 years old.

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