KATHMANDU, March 18: The government of Bangladesh has assigned a 5-member accredited representative team to Nepal to assist the investigations of last week’s US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu. According to the Aviation Management Department of Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoCTCA), the team will land in Kathmandu on Monday.
The accredited representative team is a team designated by the state of registry to participate in an investigation conducted by the state of occurrence in case of an air crash. Based on the regulation of International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the team comprising members from the state of registry, state of design, state of manufacture, state of operator and the contracting state can be deployed to the country where the accident has been occurred.
“Following the rule of ICAO, the government of Bangladesh will send accredited representative in Nepal,” said Sanjeev Gautam, director general of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). “But their role in the investigation will be as an advisor only.”
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He further said that the team is not allowed to interfere during the investigation but they can give their advices and recommendations. “They will be working separately, just to assist the investigation team,” he added.
The team is allowed to visit the site of the accident, examine the wreckage, question witnesses, and receive copies of all pertinent documents, said Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane, joint secretary of MoCTCA.
“The team of technical experts will be assisting us in studies of documents, site visit and other technical matters,” Lamichhane said.
Authorities said that the investigations might go a bit longer as the US-Bangla air crash was the biggest accident to occur in the country in 16 years.
Generally, CAAN allocates a month’s time for investigation for air crash. But in this case, the ministry is giving five months’ time for the investigation team to prepare its final report.
A six-member investigation committee led by former secretary of MoCTCA Yagya Prashad Gautam has been deployed to the field by CAAN. The committee has already started its work, according to Lamichhane.
