Officials examine the site after a Saurya Airlines’ plane crashed during takeoff at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on 24 July 2024. (Prakash Mathema/AFP)
- A passenger
plane crashed on takeoff in Kathmandu, Nepal, leading to the death of all 18
passengers, with the pilot being the sole survivor. - Nepal is known
for its challenging aviation safety record. - The European
Union has banned Nepali carriers due to safety concerns.
A passenger
plane crashed on takeoff in Kathmandu on Wednesday, with the pilot rescued from
the flaming wreckage but all 18 others aboard killed, police in the Nepali
capital told AFP.
Nepal has a
woeful track record on aviation safety and the Himalayan republic has seen a
spate of deadly light plane and helicopter crashes over the decades.
The Saurya
Airlines flight was carrying two crew and 17 of the company’s staff members,
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.”
The flight
was being conducted for either technical or maintenance purposes, Gyanendra
Bhul of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority told AFP without giving further
details.
Bahadur and
Bhul were unable to confirm the nationality of the sole foreigner aboard.
Images of
the aftermath shared by Nepal’s military showed the plane’s fuselage split
apart and burnt to a husk.
Around a
dozen soldiers in camouflage were standing on top of the wreckage with the
surrounding earth coated in fire retardant.
The plane
crashed at around 11:15 (05:30 GMT), the military said in a statement, adding
that the army’s quick response team had been lending assistance with rescue
efforts.
Rescuers and army personnel stand at the site after a Saurya Airlines’ plane crashed during takeoff at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on 24 July 2024. (Prabin Ranabhat/AFP)
News portal
Khabarhub reported that the airplane had 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.
But it has
been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance –
issues compounded by the mountainous republic’s treacherous geography.
The
European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety
concerns.
The
Himalayan country has some of the world’s trickiest runways to land on, flanked
by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for
accomplished pilots.
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The weather
can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying
conditions.
Nepal’s
last major commercial flight accident was in January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines
service crashed while landing at Pokhara, killing all 72 aboard.
That
accident was Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a
Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to
Kathmandu airport.
Earlier
that year, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing
113 people.
