A nighttime landing at Bhadrapur has exposed the fine line between discipline, training, and chaos in air safety.
What you should know
Exactly one year ago, a Japan Airlines A-350 aircraft crashed into another Japan Coast Guard aircraft while landing at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, Japan. Both aircraft caught fire. Five crew members on board the Coast Guard aircraft died. However, all 379 passengers and crew members on board the Japan Airlines passenger plane managed to safely exit before the entire aircraft was reduced to ashes by the flames.
The world media called it a ‘miracle’.
But aviation experts explained it in other words – ‘It is a miracle of training, discipline, patience of passengers and time.’
A year after the incident, a small domestic airline ATR plane was landing at Bhadrapur Airport in eastern Nepal, thousands of kilometers from Japan. It skidded off the runway.
Buddha Air flight U4-901 took off from Kathmandu for Bhadrapur at 8:23 pm. It landed at 9:06 pm. There were 51 passengers and four crew members on board.
The ATR-72 aircraft with the registration number Alpha Mike Foxtrot had completed flights to Pokhara and Biratnagar earlier that day. The Bhadrapur flight was the last flight of the day.
Captain Shailesh Limbu was in the cockpit as ‘pilot in monitoring’ while co-pilot Sushant Shrestha was the ‘pilot in flying’. Both were experienced. Co-pilot Shrestha had previously made two normal landings.
Behind the cockpit were two cabin attendants. One in front, the other in back, as per the structure of the ATR aircraft. In the front jump seat was Anjali Khadka, who had been working in Buddha Air’s ATR fleet for about a year. The emergency seats next to her were empty that evening.
Passengers on board flight U4-901 were not happy when the cabin crew informed them of the landing at Bhadrapur. The landing was not unusual at first. But within seconds, the situation changed.
The plane touched down on the runway, but the speed did not decrease as expected. Passengers felt the plane skid and the distance was long. Eventually, the plane reached the bay outside the runway and stalled.
A jolt was felt inside the cabin. Passengers were startled. As the plane was rolling, all the lights in the cabin went out. The intercom telephone also went off. Seat belts were unbuckled. Within seconds, everyone started running towards the back door.
According to an engineer who was watching the incident closely, the pilot may have immediately cut the battery line from the cockpit to reduce the risk of fire when the lights went out. That decision averted a possible fire, but with no communication between the cockpit and the cabin, the passengers were left wondering what had happened. What could they do?
There was neither an emergency declaration nor any order issued by the captain. In the darkness, Anjali, who was sitting in the front jump seat, took out a flashlight from under her seat. As per training, she went to the emergency door on the right. But the engine was still running outside. Opening that door would have been disastrous. Wings can cut people in the dark.
She turned and reached the emergency door on the left and removed the lock. Anjali, the stewardess, was trying to reassure the passengers at the back to be patient. The crowd blocked the way. She did not hear her. Someone grabbed her hand and said, 'Open the door' and took her back.
The emergency doors of ATR aircraft open by 'push and pull'. This is explained to the passengers during practice before the flight. But that night in Bhadrapur, no one was listening to the cabin crew. Nor did they remember what they had said in practice.
The passengers were screaming. There was a commotion. There was panic. Some were taking luggage out of the compartment above the seats. Some were trying to get out of the aisle. The aisle of the plane was jammed.
A passenger kicked and kicked the emergency door that had been unlocked in front. The door opened. Both the air hostesses did not see this.
Because it was at such a time, there was a stampede in the fear that the plane could catch fire at any time.
According to government officials from the Authority, who reached Bhadrapur to observe and investigate after this incident, five to eight passengers had jumped out of the emergency door in the dark. In the darkness, not knowing what was outside, what to throw at.
The main door at the back was closed. But right in front of it, the service door was open. There was a pile of luggage. Anjali kicked the bag away. Most of them had already left through the service door. Aarti Adhikari was not there.
The air outside was filled with the smell of engine oil. Oil from the wings and engine system was splashing on the clothes. There was no fire. But time was very sensitive.
Anjali called a passenger who was a little further away and asked him to hold the door. She went back on board. She started to evacuate the remaining passengers. There was still an old passenger standing inside, holding the seat. Even when she called him, he did not move. She was helpless. Finally, Anjali grabbed her and pulled her out. Only after all the passengers had left did Anjali herself exit through the service door—not the emergency door. She did not run away. As she was about to exit, copilot Shrestha arrived behind her.
Since the plane was out of danger, he had come to help her from behind. But by then, all 51 passengers had disembarked. Copilot Shrestha told Anjali to exit through the emergency. But she returned to the plane.
Instead, she said that the wings were spinning and that the wind from the wings had splashed oil on some passengers and her clothes. Following her suggestion, the copilot re-entered the cockpit. What he did will be known only through the technical investigation.
When Anjali came to the service door with the hustle and bustle, Aarti was not behind . But in the back, Aarti was also experiencing the same panicked chaos of passengers . With seven years of experience, she had first tried to open the main door . But she couldn't . Then she tried to force the service door used for storing cargo . It opened .
A crowd had already gathered behind her while trying to open it . As soon as the door opened, she fell to the ground due to the push of the passengers . As per the training she had received on what to do/not to do in an emergency, she started to take care of the passengers scattered on the floor and send them away from the ship in the dark without letting them go to the danger zone .
Her phone was inside the ship in her bag . There was no intercom . There was no order from the cockpit what to do . It was not known whether the evacuation was authorized according to the emergency manual or not. But she continued to carry out the work of taking the passengers to a safe place away from the engine and the aircraft after assessing the risk.
Some passengers hugged her happily for opening the door in the dark. Later, the two stewardesses met in the courtyard. The passenger who helped open the service door was impressed by Anjali's rescue at Bhadrapur Terminal at night and took a photo.
According to the statement they gave about the incident, 5/8 people came out of the front emergency door. The rest came out of the service door opened by Aarti. Where it was easy for the passengers to climb because there was a high hill. After all the passengers got out, the security personnel reached the scene with torches, the statement said.
If the Japanese incident is considered a 'miracle', then the one-sided statements of the passengers who came out, the video are a 'warning' message for the regulatory body and the airline company in the Bhadrapur incident.
This comparison is not about technology. But both the aircraft were safe according to international standards. Both the crews were trained. The difference was seen in human behavior.
In Haneda, passengers waited for instructions even amid the fire. Luggage was left on the plane. Discipline was shown. The system worked. In Bhadrapur, fear overtook the protocol adopted during emergencies. The door was opened without evaluation. Luggage blocked the door. The cabin crew showed bravery by breaking the plane's glass with the mindset that they are nothing. The cabin crew's instructions were not listened to.
'90 seconds' is a mantra in aviation safety. Every cabin crew is aware of this. Every commercial aircraft should be able to complete an evacuation within 90 seconds - even if the door is not half open. How much compliance is done depends on the risk situation. But nothing happened for 2/4 of a second during the calm and normal landing in Bhadrapur.
According to the initial statement of the crew, the landing gear of the 72-seat aircraft was not able to touch down at the point where it was supposed to land. If the runway built for the 35-seater Avro (later expanded) had been leveled 3/400 meters ahead when the wheels were turned, the plane would probably not have suffered structural damage.
This ATR-72 of Buddha, worth about 500 million, is currently kept separately at Bhadrapur Airport as a 'disabled aircraft'. Technical tests will decide whether it can fly now or not. Its flight in Bhadrapur was its first on the morning of Friday, 18th December. If it is determined that it cannot fly anymore, Bhadrapur itself may be its final destination because engineers have now said that repairing and flying this aircraft will cost more than the cost of the plane .
