A passenger plane crashed during takeoff in Kathmandu on Wednesday. The pilot was rescued from the flaming wreckage, but all 18 others aboard were killed, according to police in the Nepali capital, aeps rorted by AFP.
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Nepal has a poor aviation safety record, with a history of deadly light plane and helicopter crashes over the decades.
The Saurya Airlines flight was carrying two crew members and 17 of the company’s staff, Nepali police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP.
“The pilot has been rescued and is being treated,” he added. “Eighteen bodies have been recovered, including one foreigner. We are in the process of taking them for post-mortem examinations.”
The flight was being conducted for technical or maintenance purposes, said Gyanendra Bhul of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, without providing further details.
Neither Bahadur nor Bhul could confirm the nationality of the sole foreigner aboard.
Images shared by Nepal’s military showed the plane’s fuselage split apart and burnt to a husk. Around a dozen soldiers in camouflage stood on top of the wreckage, with the surrounding earth coated in fire retardant.
Rescuers and army personnel were at the site after the Saurya Airlines plane crashed during takeoff at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on July 24, 2024, AFP reported.
The plane crashed around 11:15 am (0530 GMT), according to a military statement, which added that the army’s quick response team assisted with rescue efforts.
News portal Khabarhub reported that the airplane caught fire after skidding on the runway.
The plane was scheduled to fly on Nepal’s busiest air route between Kathmandu and Pokhara, an important tourism hub in the Himalayan republic.
Saurya Airlines exclusively flies Bombardier CRJ 200 jets, according to its website.
**Plagued by Poor Safety**
Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers. However, it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance, issues compounded by the mountainous republic’s challenging geography.
The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.
Nepal has some of the world’s most challenging runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks and approaches that pose difficulties even for experienced pilots. The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating dangerous flying conditions.
Nepal’s last major commercial flight accident occurred in January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines flight crashed while landing in Pokhara, killing all 72 aboard. That was the deadliest accident in Nepal since 1992, when all 167 people on a Pakistan International Airlines flight died in a crash near Kathmandu airport. Earlier that year, a Thai Airways aircraft had also crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
