The widebody aircraft of Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific Air has been undergoing engine changes in the open area of Tribhuvan International Airport since Thursday. Engineers and technicians from Hong Kong are opening the engine of the 'grounded' plane and keeping the spare engine.

Cathay's widebody A-330 with the call sign 'Bravo-Lima Bravo Hotel' has been 'grounded' at Tribhuvan Airport since June 27. There was a problem with the ship when it was about to fly from Kathmandu to Hong Kong with 310 passengers. According to Cathay's Nepal Station, after the plane reached the runway for 'take-off' from the apron of the airport, the left engine 'burst' when the pilot turned on the power of both engines. After about two weeks, the engine was brought and the modification was started. 

According to a senior Air Traffic Controller (ATC) of Kathmandu Airport, the pilot took permission to return the aircraft to the apron after seeing a problem with the engine. It was fine when the Cathay plane landed in Kathmandu that evening from Hong Kong. We were not informed about any problem with the engine,' he said, 'while returning, a problem was found in one engine.' Due to the lack of space for parking other ships, the airport staff tried to take the Cathay ship sometimes to the parking near the depot of the oil corporation and sometimes to the remote parking in the northeast area. Cathay's staff did not accept the proposal to move the vessel by towing with the help of equipment. They took the stance of keeping the damaged ship on the apron by paying the full parking fee.

According to Cathay's Nepal station, it was not time for the engine of that ship to be 'serviced'. This was a sudden problem. There was no quality in the engine,” said a Cathay official. However, every ship has an engineer along with the crew. The engineer who came on this ship also tried to find a solution. But the ship was declared 'grounded' after the captain wrote in the ship's log book that the technical problems seen in the engine were complex. The passenger was ejected. Two weeks after the

broke, Cathay found a 'slot' of its own company's Boeing 747-400 series cargo plane flying elsewhere and landed in Kathmandu with a spare engine on Thursday. That plane with a cargo capacity of 112,000 kg was busy transporting electronics, clothes, medicine, machinery goods from Hong Kong to destinations such as New York, Milan, and Toronto that were already booked. In its place, a large cargo ship of the Boeing 747-800 series was brought in exchange," the source said. 

Kathmandu Airport General Manager Hansraj Pandey took the Cathay widebody in front of the hangar (aircraft maintenance) of Nepal Airlines Corporation after the spare engine arrived. "The corporation's widebody kept there has been brought to the parking lot where Cathay's grounded ship was kept earlier," he said. Kathmandu Airport did not allow Cathay to change the engine in the previously placed parking lot.

With 179 ships, Cathay has 20 cargo ships. There are 14 Boeing 747-800 series aircraft with a length of 76 meters and a wingspan of 68 meters. "But because those planes are not suitable for parking at Kathmandu airport, Boeing 747-400 series cargo flying elsewhere was brought to Nepal," the source said, "only this type of cargo plane is allowed to land/take off in Nepal." Its carrying capacity is 112 metric tons. But only the engine brought to Kathmandu is around 12 tons. Ships up to 200 tons are allowed to take off and land on the runway of Kathmandu airport. But due to the length and width of the wings of the Boeing 747-800 series, there is a problem in parking at the Kathmandu airport. Therefore, the ships of this series are not allowed to land.

The ship landed in Kathmandu on Thursday with a spare engine and returned to Hong Kong on Friday morning with a damaged engine. An official of Cathay Nepal said that since the Trent engine produced by Rolls-Royce Holding of Britain is still airworthy, it will be repaired and put back into use in Hong Kong. Around 15 Nepali and foreign technicians are deployed to replace the engine in the 'grounded' widebody ship. The engine will be checked after installation. It has not been confirmed when the inspection will take place. After the technical clearance, the ship will be taken to Hong Kong without passengers.

With this incident, the need for an international level hangar to repair widebody aircraft in Nepal has become urgent. Cathay's insurance agency did not allow open air engine maintenance in Nepal due to lack of international hangar service. Due to the fact that the engine could not be repaired under the open sky during the monsoon, Cathay brought a spare engine from a cargo plane flying elsewhere to Nepal and modified it. The maintenance will be done at its MRO hangar with international facilities in Hong Kong.

There are examples of India's Jet Airways, Qatar Airways, Thai Air and UAE's Etihad Airways also having to 'ground' their aircraft in Nepal for weeks due to engine problems. In February 2071, a Turkish Air widebody plane from Istanbul skidded off the runway during landing. The international flight was stopped for four days because no one in Nepal had the equipment to tow the Turkish ship stuck in the grassland. The 'brand new' ship worth 26 billion rupees could not be repaired in Nepal. The Turks handed over the ship to the insurance company and took away the working parts. The hollow ship was auctioned for around 1 crore.