Four plane crashes in six months this year have spurred the government to address air safety issues after regulatory shortcomings became glaringly apparent.

Moreover, Nepali airlines have been declared as unsafe to fly by the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) and banned by the European Commission (EC) for the past three years for significant safety deficiencies.

On Friday, the parliamentary Committee for Good Governance and Monitoring opened a debate on Nepal’s poor air safety record and other systemic problems in the aviation industry.

The House committee said that the spate of crashes had dented the country’s image and raised questions about what the government and the regulator were doing to ensure safer skies and protect the country’s reputation.

“This really needs serious intervention,” said lawmaker Uday Nepali Shrestha. “How far have the safety lapses been addressed?” he asked. “If the current safety issues are not corrected urgently, anyone can become a victim.”

Lawmaker Amar Bahadur Thapa said, “It is totally irresponsible that operators fly aircraft but do not follow the set standards. Government officials and the regulator are equally responsible for the poor safety record.” In 2013, Nepali airlines were put in the bad books of Icao and the EC as being unsafe to fly. After the latest incident, it will be even more difficult to get the significant safety concern (SSC) tag given to Nepal removed.

Nepal was red-flagged on ‘operations’ among the eight critical elements of safety oversight due to a large number of aircraft accidents and incidents between 2009 and 2012, with at least two passenger aircraft crashing annually.

On December 5, 2013, the EC had put Nepal on its air safety list, banning all carriers certified in Nepal from flying into the EU because of significant safety deficiencies requiring decisive action.

International airlines and travellers hesitate to travel to a country whose air safety has been questioned by Icao and the EC.

Sanjiv Gautam, director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan), told lawmakers that great advances had been made in safety management systems, but major accidents are still occurring.

He said that Caan had enforced stringent measures on three key safety components—regulation, training procedures and certificate of airworthiness—but still some lapses persist. “Now we have decided to focus on a non-technical issue—human behaviour or flying crew behaviour,” he said. “We cannot understand why pilots are repeatedly entering cloud under visual flight rules as it is a violation of standard operating procedure,” Gautam said.

A crash report on Tara Air Flight 193 that killed all 23 aboard has pointed out that the pilots had deliberately entered cloud while operating under visual flight rules and deviated from the normal route due to loss of situational awareness.

A preliminary report on the Fishtail Air crash that killed seven people aboard also said the mishap occurred after the pilot entered cloud. “Amid repeated violations of standard operating procedure, we have sent a circular to all operators that pilots found entering cloud during the monsoon period will lose their licences immediately,” Gautam told lawmakers. 

Many countries have started implementing behavioural safety programmes. The rationale behind behavioural safety approaches is that accidents are caused by unsafe and different behaviours inside the cockpit.

As pilots are often lauded for courage or bravery in Nepal—one of the defined behavioural approaches—it’s not a good signal. “We don’t need brave pilots, but pilots who have standard operating procedure compliance,” said Gautam.

According to Caan, almost all the crashes in Nepal are Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), a state of flight when the pilots have full control of the flight and yet the plane hits terrain.