Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Limited (HAECO)--the transit check and maintenance contractor that refuels and does minor maintenance for NAC planes in Hong Kong--had sub-contracted a pest control firm Tuesday to find the mouse as it was not authorized to kill the mouse itself. [break]
“The pest control people had placed 10 traps in the aircraft at midnight and we first checked the plane at 6:45 a.m. (local time) Wednesday but no mouse was found,” Shift Controller of HAECO JJ Prinsloo said. Prinsloo added that the traps were in place throughout the day and checked every two hours.
Officiating Head of NAC’s Engineering Department Mukunda Prasad Joshi disclosed that HAECO sought permission to use insecticides Wednesday evening and the department has given the go-ahead. “The insecticide would be mild, will not harm passengers and would just irritate the mouse and bring it out of hiding,” Joshi stated.
Dangi said technicians would identify probable hiding places and open the screws where possible to search for the rodent if it cannot be recovered even after the use of insecticide, to ensure that it is no longer inside.
Confusion about clearance for flight
The plane could have been flown back to Kathmandu Wednesday but HAECO and NAC were both reluctant to take a decision. HAECO had written to NAC early in the day stating that the mouse could not be found and the plane could be released if NAC gave clearance.
But NAC didn’t want to take the risk and instead asked HAECO to give clearance if there was no mouse. Chief of Quality Assurance and Safety Department Digambar Rajbhandari and engineering chief Joshi argued that NAC cannot give clearance while the plane remained in Hong Kong attended by HAECO.
“It becomes a technical issue after the pilot makes an entry in the Tech Log Book and HAECO engineers have to clear it if the mouse is no longer in the plane. They have not asked us before clearing other entries in the Tech Log Book in the past and should not be asking us this time either,” Joshi argued.
But HAECO countered that only NAC can give clearance as it owns the plane. Chief engineer Joshi said NAC would hold a meeting Thursday to decide about giving clearance if the mouse is not recovered by then. “We may even consult the aircraft manufacturer if necessary,” he opined.
The plane was first grounded at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on Monday after a stewardess saw a mouse jump out of a box of beverages. That led to cancellation of the flight. The plane left for Kuala Lumpur, around midnight Monday after the mouse was found dead around 8:30 p.m..
The plane left for Hong Kong Tuesday noon after returning from Kuala Lumpur and another mouse was spotted in the cockpit just before it was to land at Hong Kong International Airport Tuesday evening.
Captain YK Bhattarai, talking to our reporter in Hong Kong Purna Basnet on Wednesday, said that co-pilot Ichchh Raj Gurung was the first to spot the mouse in the cockpit Tuesday, around 45 minutes before landing. “I was resting in a passenger seat when the stewardess rushed to me and informed me about the mouse,” Bhattarai said.
“We decided to land at Hong Kong Airport, though it was not the nearest, as we had our office and contractor HAECO there,” he added. Bhattarai said the mouse appeared in the cockpit again after the plane landed.
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