In March last year, the US-Bangla airline Bombardier UBG-211 crash took place as the pilot who was in charge of the flight had smoked inside the cockpit despite restrictions, authorities confirmed on Sunday. The company has a policy of 'No Smoking' in all the flights, domestic as well as international. As per the information received by the commission, the PIC (pilot in command) was a smoker.
The commission concluded from CVR (cockpit voice recorder) that PIC smoked in the cockpit during this flight. According to the statement issued by the Accident Investigation Commission which was formed to probe the reasons behind the crash of the airline, the operation department and other authorities may not have been sure about this safety violation by the PIC during flight. As many as 51 people lost their lives when the aircraft crashed immediately after landing on Nepal's Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA).
On March 12 last year, the US Bangla Airlines while operating a scheduled passenger flight crashed about 442 meters southeast of the touchdown point of runway 20. All four crew members of the airline, including two cockpit crew, two cabin crew along with 45 passengers out of the total 67 aboard were killed during the accident. Two more passengers died later in the hospital during the course of treatment. The aircraft was destroyed by impact forces and a post-crash fire.