‘Disaster management has been limited to demo and drills’

POKHARA, Jan 22: Just a few days before the Pokhara Regional International Airport came into operation, an emergency rescue drill was conducted on the airport premises. The purpose of the drill was to make the rescuers familiar with the process of saving passengers in case of a plane crash and how to rescue passengers and control fire in an aircraft that has crashed.

Every airport practices such rescue drills each year. A similar exercise was conducted on December 9 when Pokhara Regional International Airport was being prepared for operation three weeks later.

A "dummy" aircraft was placed on the premises of the international airport to conduct training sessions on rescue and fire control at that time. However, turning the same rescue drill in practice when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed into the Seti River gorge flowing through the center of Pokhara last week turned out ineffective.

The plane with 72 passengers including four crew members crashed about 2 km from the international airport. Similarly, the accident site is within one kilometer from the old airport of Pokhara, where this plane had been flying until two weeks ago. There are currently two airports in operation in Pokhara. The accident happened in between the two airports. However, when the plane actually crashed, none of the passengers could be rescued alive, and the fire that engulfed the plane couldn’t be brought under control. Due to the lack of rescue in time, the rescue capacity of the entire state has been questioned.

Last week's incident showed that the rescue work done when the plane crashed in the central city was difficult to carry out. Does that mean the rescue drills are of no use in case of real events? Bikram Gautam, head of Pokhara Regional International Airport, says, "The practice taught us something, and soon we had to deal with an actual accident. The measures adopted by the rescuers were not enough because they faced many difficulties.”

According to Gautam, the main challenge is to prevent human casualties, prevent further material damage and bring the airport into operation as soon as possible. Pokhara Regional International Airport was back in operation 2 hours and 13 minutes after the plane crash of Yeti Air on January 15 since there was no damage to the airport. However, human loss and physical damage could not be prevented. The main reason for this was the difficulty to access the crash site.

Fire engine reached the spot within 12-13 minutes of the plane crash. Ambulance had also arrived. However, access through the road was a problem. “It was not possible to park the fire engines at the desired spot," he said, "Even though three fire engines were sent in a row, they could not get closer because of the narrow road. It was difficult to bring the fire under control because of this reason.”

In his opinion, the damage would have been reduced if the plane had crashed on a plain land. If the accident happened inside the airport, there would have been no human casualties. "Had the accident occurred inside the airport, there would have been no human casualties, but the incident happened in a gorge," he said, “There were no fire engines to cope with the difficult geography. As a result, there has been difficulty in rescue.”

When the Yeti Airlines plane crashed, fire engines from both Pokhara Airport and the Pokhara Metropolitan Weather Station were activated. They could not reach the spot when they wanted, because the road leading to the gorge was narrow. Similarly, Gautam said that he felt that the 'satellite station' was also erected as it was needed during any disaster. According to him, there should be such satellite stations in the places of the city, where the weather instruments, ambulances, rescue materials, medicines, tents, food and other things should be kept so that the items can be mobilized at any time according to the need.

“This time, a plane crashed, but accidents do not always involve aircraft, but other incidents can also happen. Events such as floods, landslides, earthquakes and fires can also occur. If the necessary manpower and resources can be mobilized from those stations, there should not be a situation where we have to rely on only one place like now," he said, “This accident showed the lack of such stations in many places in the city."

Likewise, communication at the accident site was also very difficult. After the accident, when a large number of people reached the spot, communication became difficult. He said that there are also needs like roads, electricity and water. "There was difficulty in phone communication on the airport premises even on the day Pokhara Regional International Airport came into operation on January 1. The telecommunication company should prepare the infrastructure so that the tower can be reached immediately," he said, “Everyone has an important role to play during such unfortunate incidents. However, there were some shortages and shortcomings.”

Not only during the rescue but also to keep the bodies of the passengers who died in the accident, there was a lack of 'refrigerator' in the mortuary of the Paschimanchal Hospital. “A total of only 17-18 bodies could fit. But, we had 72 dead bodies. Now it is felt that that capacity should also be increased," he said.

In terms of geography, Pokhara is the largest metropolis in the country, located in Gandaki Province, and the city that is considered to be excellent in terms of services also shows that the government is not at all prepared for a plane crash disaster. Ananda Raj Mulmi, the former president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FNCCI) says, “Disaster management has been limited as a demo only. The faulty preparation was exposed in the real situation," says Mulmi.

According to him, Pokhara currently does not have enough fire stations. Apart from that, there is the lack of rescue equipment. The police have been given the responsibility of all disaster management. The responsibility of disaster management has been given only to the police although different security agencies are needed for disasters. However, the police do not have enough resources for disaster management. “We need different security agencies according to the geographical conditions," he said, "If we make a team full of equipment, it will be easy."

In every district there is a disaster management committee under the leadership of the chief district officer. Assistant Chief District Officer of Kaski, Guru Datta Dhakal claims that despite some difficulties, they facilitated the rescue efforts by mobilizing all the resources available. In terms of access, not all vehicles could reach the incident site. However, due to the close proximity of necessary resources and manpower, it was possible to reach the incident site easily.

“However, we carried out the rescue operation by hanging from a crane in Pokhara. We even got to this point where we diverted the water from Seti to another place and carried out the rescue operation.''

Geology expert Shree Kamal Dwivedi says that disaster management has become weak. “There must be a will to perform rescue,” he said, “Fighting the disaster has become just a show”. He said that disaster management should be given priority now.

"Incident happens one day, but preparation should be there for 365 days. The team should be ready each and every day,'' said Dwivedi.