The pilot was rescued from the wreckage, but all 18 passengers were killed when a passenger plane crashed in Kathmandu on Wednesday during takeoff, according to reports from the Nepali capital’s police.
Nepal’s aviation safety record is appalling, and over the decades, the Himalayan nation has experienced a rash of fatal crashes involving light aircraft and helicopters. The Saurya Carriers flight was conveying two group and 17 of the organization’s staff individuals, Nepali police representative Dan Bahadur Karki said.”
He stated, “The pilot has been rescued and is being treated.” “Eighteen bodies, one of which belonged to a foreigner, have been found. They are currently being examined for postmortem by us. The dead foreign national was a Yemeni citizen, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.
The aircraft “veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway” shortly after takeoff, according to the airport’s press release. The survivor was in difficult condition in emergency clinic, it said.
Slam Kumar K.C., who runs a tire store close to the accident site, told AFP the plane burst into flames in the wake of raising a ruckus around town. The 48-year-old stated, “We were about to run to the site, but then there was an explosion, so we ran away again.”
Gyanendra Bhul of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority told AFP that the flight was being conducted for either technical or maintenance reasons, but he did not provide any additional information.
The plane’s fuselage was broken up and burned to a cinder in photographs of the aftermath that were shared by the military of Nepal. On top of the wreckage, a dozen soldiers dressed in camouflage stood, the ground around them coated in fire retardant.
After the crash, the bodies were taken to a nearby hospital, where dozens of grieving relatives gathered. Rajan Acharya, the brother of a safety officer on the flight, told AFP, “I am heartbroken.” “We were best friends even more than he was my brother.”
The plane was scheduled to fly between Kathmandu and Pokhara, a significant tourism hub, on Nepal’s busiest air route. Saurya Aircrafts solely flies Bombardier CRJ 200 planes, as per its site. – Beset by poor security – In recent years, Nepal’s air industry has grown rapidly, transporting foreign climbers and trekkers as well as goods and people between remote areas.
However, poor safety has plagued it as a result of inadequate training and upkeep, which has been exacerbated by the perilous geography of mountainous Nepal. Concerns about safety have prompted the European Union to prohibit all Nepali airlines from using its airspace.
Nepal has some of the trickiest runways in the world. They are flanked by snow-capped mountains and require approaches that even experienced pilots can’t handle. In the mountains, the weather can also change quickly, making it dangerous to fly.
Nepal’s last significant episode including a business flight was in January 2023, when a Sasquatch Carriers administration crashed while arriving at Pokhara, killing each of the 72 on board.
That was the deadliest accident in Nepal since a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed on approach to the Kathmandu airport in 1992, killing all 167 people on board. 113 people were killed when a Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport earlier that year.
