Missing NAC aircraft parts: Ministry sends case to police

Dec-12th-2011
KATHMANDU,; The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of the Nepal Police has been entrusted the responsibility of investigating a series of mysterious disappearances of aircraft parts belonging to Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) at the airport.

NAC has lost a fly away kit and spare wheels of its Boeing 757 and the landing gear of its Twin Otter aircraft within a space of less than a year. The equipment is estimated to be worth Rs 150 million.

The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation (MoTCA) had requested the Home Ministry to conduct a probe after earlier investigations done by the ministry and the national flag carrier were fruitless.

The ministry’s move comes after the parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) directed it to take strong action against those involved in the thefts within seven days.

CIB chief DIG Upendra Kant Aryal said the Police Headquarters had formally received the case file to investigate the thefts at NAC. “We received the file on Sunday and the CIB is currently doing a study.”

While the MoTCA had formed a four-member high-level committee to look into the thefts, a ministry official said that they were a “criminal case” rather than abuse of authority and thus a case for the Home Ministry.

On March 10, an investigation committee had been formed as per the directives of the MoTCA to probe the theft of a fly away kit of NAC’s Boeing 757. However, the probe team did not come up with anything, and unabashedly mentioned in its report that the staff on duty did not show up to answer questions. The fly away kit is estimated to cost around Rs 45 million.

NAC had turned to the government for help after its probes turned up blank. “A big nexus within NAC is involved in these thefts, and the government should step in to investigate them,” NAC’s Executive Chairman Manarup Shahi told lawmakers at the PAC meeting on Nov 30.