Plane crash :

While taking off from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, a plane crashed and caught fire, killing eighteen people.

The pilot, who was pulled from the flaming wreckage on Wednesday, is the only survivor of the tragic accident and is presently undergoing treatment in a hospital.

Two crew members and seventeen corporate personnel, including technical staff, were on board the Saurya Airlines test flight. It was headed west, to Pokhara, the popular tourist destination in the Himalayas.

The aviation sector in Nepal has a dismal safety record, which has been ascribed to a number of things over the years, including erratic weather patterns and loose laws.

As part of a routine maintenance check, the aircraft was headed for Pokhara when it crashed a few minutes after takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport. The crash occurred at approximately 11:15 local time (05:30 GMT), according to a statement from the search and rescue coordination center of the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority.

The pilot got lacerations on his forehead and eyes, according to police spokeswoman Dan Bahadur Karki, but his life was not in jeopardy.

“It sounded like maybe a truck had overturned on the road,” stated a man who was inside a neighboring shop at the time of the accident.

“After witnessing [the incident], we fled. After striking the ground, the aircraft caught fire. We were going to rush to the location, but an explosion happened, so we had to flee once more,” he said to the AFP news agency.

Even though airport officials have not been able to determine what caused the incident, airport chief Jagannath Niraula told BBC Nepali that it “happened as soon as it left the ground, in not even a minute”.

But according to the head of Tribhuvan International Airport, preliminary analysis revealed that the aircraft had flown in the incorrect direction.
Mr. Niraula said to BBC Nepali, “As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left.”

The plane was captured on camera bending above the runway and then crashing into the earth, catching fire. It was soon covered with smoke and flames.
Pictures showed rescuers sifting through the debris, much of the aircraft severely burned and blackened. Parts of the aircraft looked to be inside an air freight container in photos taken in the aftermath.

Following the event, ambulances and fire engines were dispatched to the scene.

Of the deceased, seventeen were Nepali nationals and one was an engineer by nationality from Yemen.

“On Thursday, the aircraft was supposed to undergo a month-long maintenance program. According to Reuters news agency, Saurya Airlines marketing head Mukesh Khanal stated, “It is unclear why it crashed.”

Following the incident, Kathmandu’s airport briefly shuttered but reopened in a matter of hours, according to Reuters.

Nepal’s track record on flight safety has drawn criticism. At least 72 passengers perished in a Yeti Airlines disaster in January 2023, which was subsequently linked to the pilots’ error in turning off the power.

The plane crash that killed all 167 passengers on board Pakistan International Airlines when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu Airport in 1992 was the biggest aviation accident to occur in Nepal to date.

On its website, Saruya Airlines states that it flies three Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft to five different locations in Nepal.

 

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