The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) has formally invited the International Civil Aviation Organization (Icao) to carry out an audit of the corrective measures it has taken to address the significant safety concerns (SSC) relating to operations and other aspects, more than three years after Nepal was put in the bad books for the worst record of air safety oversight.

Caan Spokesperson Birendra Prasad Shrestha said that a letter requesting an audit had been dispatched to the headquarters of the United Nations aviation agency in Montreal, Canada on December 20. “We have invited Icao’s revalidation mission to visit Nepal by March 2017, but we have not received any confirmation.”

Shrestha said that Caan decided to invite the audit mission after getting the go-ahead from the Combined Action Team (CAT) of Icao’s Asia and Pacific office in Bangkok which had helped it in its evaluation and preparedness.

A six-member CAT mission provided assistance to Caan from November 22-25. Icao monitors Nepal’s aviation safety oversight capabilities through the Icao Coordinated Validation Missions (ICVM). The mission is normally invited by a state when it is fully confident that it has fulfilled all the compliances with international safety standards.

Caan said that it had addressed almost all the deficiencies pointed out by the Icao audit in 2013, and expressed confidence that Nepal would be removed from the safety list.

In July 2013, an Icao mission had visited Nepal to validate the corrective measures taken by the country to address the deficiencies pointed out by the global aviation watchdog in 2009.

The mission carried out an on-site audit from July 10-16. The report was submitted in August 2013.

Unsatisfied with Nepal’s progress, the UN aviation watchdog had given the SSC tag to Nepal’s aviation sector in its audit report. It had given a red flag on ‘operations’, among the eight critical elements of safety oversight, due to the large number of aircraft accidents and incidents between 2009 and 2012, with at least two passenger aircraft crashing annually.

Nepal has performed poorly in effective implementation of air safety oversight systems, appearing way down among 46 Asian countries, according to the safety audit report of Icao.

Following the Icao audit report, the European Commission (EC) on December 5, 2013 put all Nepali carriers in its bad books for the worst record of air safety oversight.

The EC has asked European operators and travel agents to inform European travellers who will have a right to reimbursement if they have booked a seat on a Nepali carrier as part of a journey to Nepal and decide not to use it. Nepali carriers will not be removed from the EC blacklist until the SSC is removed.