Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC), formally known as Royal Nepal Airlines... like everything else the "royal" has been painted over... although in saying that I have a feeling that although the baggage carts and passenger buses have been repainted I think the planes are still "royal". Anyways NAC has been having some problems with their fleet of 2 not so top of the range Boeing 747s... the flights are always being changed and delayed due to technical problems and more recently canceled whilst one plane languishes in a hospital for planes in Brunei of all places... I imagine the most frustrating thing for NAC officials is that actually a lot of tourists want to visit Nepal and there aren't that many airlines flying, and NAC is too broken down to make much money out of the situation... according to Kantipur newspaper this is because the airline officials have squandered much cash through corruption and bribes etc...
anyways to get to the point. what did the airline officials do about this situation??? well the only obvious thing really... I will let the Kantipur newspaper explain further:
KATHMANDU, Sept 3 - Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) failed to rid itself of the recurring technical problem in its Boeing-757 aircraft, despite its engineering department's untiring efforts.
But believe it or not, Chief of NAC engineering department, PBS Kansakar found the root cause of the problem in his dream last night: God was angry as the corporation had not appeased him by sacrificing goats.
Then, the corporation Sunday decided to worship Lord Bhairavnath, and sacrificed two goats-- one black and another white-so that all would be well with its aircraft.
The sacrifice was offered at NAC's hanger at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) at around 3:45 pm. NAC top bosses, including Managing Director Gautam Das Shrestha were present to offer worship and goat blood to the deity, said an NAC official. "The decision to sacrifice was made after Kansakar consulted with the top management this morning."
The NAC aircraft whose flights had often been cancelled was again grounded last night after its two attempted flights to Hong Kong failed due to repetition of the problem in the anti-ice device.
After operating flights to Dubai and Kuala Lumpur, the aircraft flew for Hong Kong at 8:30 pm last night. "When the aircraft reached 31,000 feet over Biratnagar, its anti-ice devise was switched on. But it would not respond, leading to diversion of the flight to Kathmandu," said Captain Y.K. Bhattarai.
"With two hours maintenance, the engineering department said the problem was fixed. It again flew at around midnight. After flying for around 15 minutes, we checked whether the device was functioning or not at 20,000 feet. But it was not. So, we returned for the second time."
With the problem repeating time and again, the passengers are afraid to fly NAC. "In the first flight, there were 129 passengers. The number was reduced to 95 in the second flight, as passengers became scared," said Bhattarai.
1 comment:
Interesting! Do not know whether to laugh or to cry after reading this article. I think, god is also feeling the same and frazzled to have reluctant trade, 'goat's blood for blessings'.
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