According to the preliminary report, the Yeti Airlines flight lost thrust and fell after the propellers of both engines went into a feathered position. This is not normal, Absolutely abnormal position & error caused due to the Pilot’s mistake.
Did the pilots accidentally shut down the power to the engines? Unfortunately, the answer is yes.
The plane had crashed just ‘10 to 20 seconds before landing. The investigation report said the pilot who was primarily flying the aircraft handed over the controls to the pilot monitoring before it crashed.
An analysis of the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder showed the propellers of both engines went into “feather in the base leg of descending.”
However, investigators have mentioned that ‘it is rare for the propellers of both engines to come to a feathered position’. This factor has also been mentioned in the 14-page preliminary report posted on the website of the Ministry of Tourism, Nepal.
Then what’s happened exactly..?
During the time of the crash, the prevailing visibility was 6 km and the sky was almost clear with only a few clouds,” points out the preliminary report, further eliminating the bad-weather-low-visibility aspect of causing a crash.
Pilots unintentionally pulled the condition levers causing the engine to shut down and feather the propellers. Each lever starts and stops the fuel supply, and controls the idle speed for its respective engine.
There is also the issue of flaps. There are questions about why the pilots delayed extending the flaps to 30 degrees. The routine checklists were not followed.
There were two captains on the plane. Captain Anju Khatiwada was in the process of obtaining aerodrome familiarisation for operating in Pokhara, and Captain Kamal KC was the instructor pilot on this training flight.
It seems to be the worst error made by pilots resulting in 72 people on board to a sudden painful & unnatural death that shouldn’t have.
Dr. Ranjan Kumar,
Aviation Expert
Editor-in-chief enderportal.com