Nepal has suspended three air traffic controllers and launched aninvestigation after two passenger planes nearly collided mid-air last week,officials said Sunday.
The incident occurred on Friday when an Air India airliner and a NepalAirlines plane were waiting to land at Kathmandu’s busy internationalairport.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has formed an committee to look intothe incident, spokesperson Jagannath Niroula told AFP.
He said the Air India plane, which was on hold at an altitude of 19,000feet (5,800 metres) due to high traffic at Kathmandu airport, suddenlydescended and narrowly missed colliding with the Nepal Airlines aircraftflying at an altitude of 15,000 feet.
“We have formed a committee to investigate into this incident which hasraised our concern over the safety risk,” Niroula said.
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“Three air traffic controllers who were in the duty at that time have beenremoved from the active control position until further notice,” he said.
“Similarly, we have sent a letter to the Indian civil aviation regulatorybody to investigate into possible fault of Air India’s pilot and takenecessary action.”
Nepal is notorious for its poor air safety and the latest incident comesless than two months after a plane crash in western Nepal which killed all72 people on board.