Global Courant 2023-04-25 19:02:08
KATHMANDU – The Nepal Civil Aviation Authority on Tuesday disputed whether a flydubai aircraft had been hit by a bird strike in Nepalese airspace, calling the United Arab Emirates airline’s report “misleading”.
The airline had said a flight carrying 167 passengers from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Dubai suffered a bird strike during takeoff late Monday.
The plane continued its journey after the engine was determined to be within normal operating parameters, a flydubai spokesperson said, and the plane landed normally in Dubai just after midnight local time.
But the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said on Twitter on Tuesday that the airline’s country manager and airport manager had been banned from Kathmandu airport for spreading “misleading” news about a bird strike.
Flydubai said it would respond shortly to a request for comment on the tweet. The UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“How did the company say it was a bird strike? The pilot has not reported this and so far there are no indications for this. There is no evidence or basis for this,” said Mr. Jagannath Niroula, a CAAN spokesperson.
Mr Niroula said one of the aircraft’s engines had caught fire shortly after takeoff from Kathmandu and the CAAN had set up a technical committee to investigate.
Mountainous Nepal has a history of fatal plane crashes and in January this year suffered its worst plane crash in 30 years, killing all 72 people on board a Yeti Airlines ATR 72 aircraft. REUTERS
