Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: At least 19 people, including two crew members, on board, died while the pilot survived when their aircraft crashed and burst into flames soon after it tried to take off at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday, the media reported.
The plane skidded off the runway soon after trying to take off, burst into flames, and fell on an embankment. Videos from the spot show a huge fire with plumes of smoke rising near the airport.
The CRJ200 aircraft, with a capacity for 50 passengers, did not gain any altitude on take-off.
The bodies of 18 out of the 19 people on board were recovered after the mishap, Nepal’s civil aviation authority was quoted as saying.
The passengers, comprising two crew and 17 of Saurya Airlines staff, were on board the Pokhara-bound plane when it crashed around 11 am, Nepali police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki said.
The flight was being conducted for either technical or maintenance purposes. The pilot of the aircraft was hospitalized.
Firefighters and the Nepal army rushed to the spot to control the situation. The cause of the fire is not known yet.
The Tribhuvan airport is a tabletop airport located on the top of a plateau surrounded by deep gorges and valleys on all sides. It’s among the riskiest airports in the world.
Nepal’s aviation industry has some of the worst air safety records in the world, plagued by poor safety because of insufficient training and maintenance, the reports said.
In 2023, a Yeti Airlines aircraft crashed in Pokhara killing all 72 people on board, including five Indians. It was Nepal’s deadliest crash since 1992 when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) aircraft died when it crashed on approach to the Kathmandu airport.