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Kathmandu, February 22: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has started import control of helicopters and aircraft made in Europe.

Most of the air accidents in Nepal so far have been caused by European-made aircraft, so the authority has started to control the import of Airbus aircraft from Europe for the time being.

Most of the aircraft and helicopters owned by Nepal belong to European companies. After the EU blacklisted Nepal’s airspace for the past decade, the authority has started to control the import of Airbus aircraft and helicopters for the time being. However, the decision has not been made official.

Information Officer of the Authority Gyanendra Bhul said, “At present, out of 34 helicopters in Nepal, 30 are of European companies. As the majority of the aircraft were from the European companies”.

For the time being, CAAN has decided to suspend Mountain Air’s decision to import Airbus,” he informed.

Earlier, CAAN had suspended the decision to import helicopters made by the European countries, Annapurna, Altitude Air and Air Dynasty.

He said that after studying the accidents so far, technical problems including indicators, and landing gear, among others, were found in Airbus-built aircraft, thus far, the Nepali companies are asked to import aircraft manufactured in other countries.

He informed that all the helicopter companies are preparing to bring Airbus helicopters to compete in the market, and the airlines are also preparing to bring ATR aircraft, CAAN has encouraged the airline operators to bring Boeing instead of the aircraft manufactured in Europe.

At a meeting held on Friday between the Authority and the Air Service Operators Association, it was discussed about the EU’s continued blacklist of Nepal and identified other aircraft suitable for Nepal’s geography and discussed seeking alternatives for the purchase and maintenance of aircraft.

The EU has blacklisted the Nepali Aviation sector for the past decade. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) had advised the EU to lift the blacklist on the Nepali aviation sector, but still, the EU has not responded.

According to the CAAN sources, the authority seems to have taken a policy to control European aircraft in Nepal after the EU’s ignorance in lifting the blacklist on the Nepali aviation sector even after maximum improvement has been made by CAAN after the situation in 2013.

The government has introduced two bills in the House of Representatives to break up CAAN and separate the regulator and service provider agencies.

The EU, however, had been making a condition to arrange two separate institutions to carry out the service-providing work of the current authority, the Nepal Air Service Authority and the Civil Aviation Authority, which is in charge of regulation, reports Gorkhapatra Daily, the government’s mouthpiece.

People’s News Monitoring Service.