The report blames both the aircraft pilots and Tribhuvan International Airport\'s Air Traffic Control (ATC) for the crash. The commission, consisting of senior legal and aviation officials from Nepal. India and Germany, said the pilots strayed off-course soon after departure. And the air traffic controiiei\'s at the radar, who should have warned the pilots, failed to do so.
Narendra Man Shrestha, a senior Nepali government lawyer who headed the commission, said there was simply no one around at the radar screens to warn the pilots. "The shifts were being changed at the time," Shrestha said.
The investigation revealed that the plane was unable to gain height, possibly because of a steeper-than-usual right bank after takeoff, and pilots were busy trying to get the airspeed up after the ground proximity warning came on the cockpit. Eleven seconds later, the plane hit the mountain at 7,235 ft while falling at 250 ft per minute on a 34-degree right-bank turn. The accident was technically a "controlled flight into terrain\'\'.
Aviation experts say that although the death toll in the accident was low, the disaster has important lessons for other regular airline flights out of Kathmandu with full passenger loads. "We have to learn to prevent more serious accidents in future," said one Nepali aviation expert. "And the key question here is why were the controllers at the radar not able to warn the pilots that they were straying beyond four miles.
The investigation also concluded as much: "No advisory alert was given by the Approach Controller to the crew when the aircraft deviated from the standard departure."
