As many as 18 passengers, a Yemeni national and a child among them, were killed on Wednesday after an aircraft crashed shortly after taking off from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu.
There were 19 persons aboard the Saurya Airlines 9N-AME plane, a non-scheduled flight headed to Pokhara, a tourist destination which is a 25-minute flight from Kathmandu.
Also read: Nepal plane crash updates
“One injured person was rescued and taken to the hospital, and 18 persons were found dead,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said.
The accident site of a Saurya Airlines plane that caught fire after skidding off the runway while taking off is cordoned at Tribhuvan International Airport, in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit:
Reuters
Pilot Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, who is the lone survivor in the crash, is undergoing treatment at the Kathmandu Model Hospital.
Hospital officials said Captain Shakya remains in a critical condition.
According to airline officials, the aircraft was heading to Pokhara for a C Check, a comprehensive inspection carried out every 18 to 24 months.
All aboard the plane were Nepalese except one, who has been identified by CAAN as a Yemeni national.
After take-off, the plane turned in the wrong direction, Jagannath Niraula, chief of Tribhuvan International Airport, said. “As soon as it took off, it turned right instead of turning left,” Mr. Niraula was quoted as saying by the BBC News Nepali. However, “the cause of the accident has not been revealed yet.”
Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli and Home Minister Ramesh Lekh separately visited the accident site to gather details about the incident and provide necessary directives.
Mr. Oli said he was deeply saddened by the tragic deaths in the crash and was at the site to inquire about the cause of the crash with the Civil Aviation Authority’s officials. He urged all for patience at this hour of grief.
According to Flightradar24 flight tracking, the plane was built in 2003 and was handed over to Saurya in 2017.
“The aircraft was not equipped with a modern ADS-B transponder, so it was not tracked on Flightradar 24,” the flight tracker wrote on X, immediately after the crash.
An emergency Cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to form a committee to investigate the crash. “A five-member committee has been set up under the leadership of Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, former director general of CAAN,” said Communications Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung.
Airports in Nepal’s mountain regions are notorious for their tricky runways and quickly changing weather conditions, posing challenges even for accomplished pilots. Wednesday’s crash was the 105th in Nepal since the country recorded its first air disaster in August 1955, and the worst aviation accident in the country in 18 months.
(With inputs from PTI)
