January 24: The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has directed the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) to suspend five of its pilots for disobeying the instructions given by the air traffic controller (ATC) of Hong Kong, China, while landing the plane.    
Spokesperson of CAAN Jagannath Niraula confirmed that the NAC has been directed to suspend five of its pilots for not abiding by the rules.    
According to Niraula, pilots Uddhab Ghimire, Rajesh Kushwaha and Nar Bahadur Bishwakarma did not follow the instructions of the ATC while landing the NAC aircraft at the Hong Kong Airport.    
Likewise, the NAC has been directed to suspend pilots Prashanna Rana and YP Juwarchan for not following the Standard Operational Procedures (SOP) while taking off the plane from Kathmandu to Japan.    
The state-owned flag carrier of Nepal must comply with the directive of CAAN and suspend all five pilots. After the suspension, the CAAN will interrogate them before taking further decision on whether to continue or end the suspension of those pilots, Niraula said. -- RSS