EU team to visit Nepal to conduct a safety audit on October 6

KATHMANDU, Sep 26: The European Commission (EU) team, which has been banned Nepali aircrafts from European skies for years has decided to come to Nepal to conduct an aerial 'safety audit'.

Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the country's aviation regulatory body, Director General Pradeep Adhikari confirmed that the EU team will arrive on October 6 for the safety audit.

The news has been received that the EU team will come on October 6," said DG of CAAN, "We are fully prepared for the safety audit."

According to the director general officer, positive feedback will be received from the upcoming audit as air accidents are decreasing recently and safety has improved a lot.

According to him, the latest report of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has shown that there has been significant improvement in Nepal's air safety, so there is a possibility that the EU will also remove it from the blacklist.

A test conducted by ICAO a few months ago showed that Nepal's average compliance rate was 70.1 percent. Raising questions about air security, ICAO listed Nepal as a country of serious security concern in 2013, but removed Nepal from the list five years later.

On the other hand, the EU has been blacklisting Nepal since 2013. In particular, ICAO and EU have been raising the question that the work of regulating and managing aviation in Nepal is done by the same organization.

The bill to separate the regulator and manager of CAAN has been passed by the National Assembly. Now it will be implemented after it is passed by the House of Representatives.

Earlier, an EU team came to Nepal in 2013 for an audit. Even now the same team is coming to audit. The EU team will stay in Nepal for five days.

Legislation, Organization, Personal Licensing, Flight Operation, Airworthiness, Accident Investigation, Air Navigation Service, Aerodrome and Ground Aid will be studied in eight areas.

ICAO first conducted a preliminary audit of Nepal's airspace in 1999. In 2001, ICAO conducted a formal audit here for the first time. Air safety was also raised at that time. ICAO also conducted audits in 2004 and 2008.

The EU has been blacklisting Nepal by raising many issues, including the status of Air Service Operation and Permit Certificate (AOC), accident investigation report and three accidents in Nepal between September 2012 and September 2013.