There is probably a trivial human error behind the plane crash in Nepal which cost the lives of 72 people, which took place on 15 January. Perhaps the captains have mistakenly touched the propeller lever, which in fact removes power from the engine and switches it off, instead of that of the flaps.
The investigations are not yet concluded, but this is the most likely scenario. In fact, the technical problem has been excluded and therefore we try to understand what could have gone wrong. What may have been the pilots error. Perhaps the most expert, perhaps distracted, perhaps sleepy, perhaps very tired from the hours of work, it is impossible to say, confused the two levers, causing the disaster.
The proximity of the two levers certainly didn’t help, very similar if you look at the control panel, but with two distinctly different functions.
The plane that then crashed, a Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500, had taken off at 10.32 local time from Kathmandu and was headed for Pokhara, a tourist site which then allows access to the highest peaks in the world. It crashed a minute before landing: 68 passengers and 4 crew members died instantly. The investigations in Nepal are carried out with the assistance of the French transport safety agency (BEA), with the help of the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) and Pratt & Whitney, the manufacturer of the engines. The black box data was studied in laboratories in Singapore.
On the day of the disaster, the pilots had already made a Kathmandu-Pokhara round trip and that was the second trip. These are two experienced pilots: one with over 22,000 flight hours behind them, one with less than 7,000 flight hours. But they were dealing with something new: the Pokhara runway had changed just two weeks earlier, changing orientation.