After landing on Monday morning, the hydraulics of the plane's right main landing gear caught fire (tire on fire).
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A Turkish Airlines Airbus A330 widebody aircraft, which had been grounded at Tribhuvan International Airport for four days, has returned to Istanbul empty after being repaired.
The plane's right main landing gear hydraulics caught fire (tire on fire) after landing on Monday morning. Kathmandu Airport was then closed at 6:34 am and reopened at 8:12 am.
A total of 288 people, including 273 passengers, 11 crew members and 4 infants, were safely evacuated near Taxiway Bravo via an emergency slide that day.
Similarly, 278 passengers who were supposed to depart from Nepal were sent to Istanbul on another plane about 12 hours later on Monday evening. That plane, however, was grounded at Tribhuvan International Airport for four days.
A team of six technicians from Istanbul repaired the plane for about three days under the open sky in the extended parking area to the north of Kathmandu Airport. They also brought the necessary spare parts with them.
According to an airport official, all the slides of the plane have been replaced. In addition, the repair was completed by replacing the damaged parts in the main landing gear assembly and one of the rear tires.
According to an aeronautical engineer at the authority, if an aircraft registered abroad breaks down in Nepal, the civil aviation office of the concerned country should issue an initial flight permit. On that basis, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on Thursday granted permission for ‘ferry flights’ (without commercial passengers) to fly in Nepal.
Turkish Airlines has been operating five flights a week in Nepal, connecting Nepal with Europe, the US and Canada. It is one of the major European-based long-haul airlines operating in Nepal.
