13/03/2018
In the investigation reports of the Thai Airways (1992) and Turkish Airlines (2015) accidents, and of possibly other accidents that I am not aware of, the problem with easily confused VOR radials 02 and 20 (022 and 202 degrees due north, respectively), as well other navigational error (e.g. misleading information provided to the crew) were pointed out, and put forward as recommendations for improvement of flight operations and safety at TIA. In fact, this confusion, and misjudgment on part of the pilots, was one of the main reasons for the Thai Airways crash. That's about 26 years of time, with intermediate incidents as reminders, for CAAN and the ministry to have implemented a safety measure to ensure that the same confusion did not occur again. But such a measure seems totally lacking in the mitigation procedure that was seen in yesterday's event. This combined with other incompetent responses from the authorities in terms of firefighting and rescue operation, suggests that Nepalese flight and aerodrome regulators should bear a heavy responsibility for what has happened.
Also in case of the Thai Airways, a provision for "willful misconduct" under Warshaw Convention was provoked in a legal case to make sure that the families of the victims were given a proper recognition for their grief, which did not necessarily "blame" the pilots but instead gave the families an answer as to what had actually happened (including higher compensations, which is of some comfort, when a willful misconduct was affirmed).
As for the media and the public throwing direct verdict against the pilots or the ATC, and the media that publicly released pilot/ATC voice recordings of the incident without thinking about the sensitivities of the issue, and before even a preliminary reporting was done by the authorities... I hope you see the systematic failure that you are ignorantly becoming a part of.
This incident needs to be investigated professionally and extremely critically, with a rigid focus on future reforms that must take shape.
https://youtu.be/HPUfcLT95Hs
Here is the conversation between Kathmandu Airport Traffic Controllers and the Pilot of US Bangla Airlines BS211 (Dhaka-Kathmandu) just few minutes before it...
