the news is not all that ridiculous as it sounds when you read the title.
we all know, sacrificing animals is a part of our culture. this is just one instance. just because BBC published the news, let's not be naive about our culture. blame the culture if you want to, the news doesn't surprise me.

it seems like they fixed the problem in the aircraft first (i don't know for sure, from the news, how reliable and precise was the fix though) and then only went for sacrificing, not that they sacrificed hoping the aircraft to get fixed by itself or from some divine power. as someone said above, sacrificing roosters/goats and the likes during dashain has been quite commonplace. why so big fuss about it now?...may be we (nepal) are under the attention of vigilant international communities for quite sometime now due to political reasons, they have put us as a specimen under microscopic vision and henceforth blew this news out of proportion. 5 years back, they wouldn't have even cared about what's going on in the land of himalaya.