KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — At least 18 people were killed and a pilot was injured when a plane took off from the Nepalese capital when it crashed on Wednesday.
Police officer Basanta Rajouri said that the authorities have recovered all the 18 bodies. The pilot has injuries to his eyes, but his life is not in danger, said a doctor at the Kathmandu Medical College Hospital, where the pilot is being treated. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a press release that the domestic Shourya Airlines flight from Kathmandu airport to the resort city of Pokhara at 11:11 a.m. local time took off and turned right, but crashed minutes later. East side of the airport.
Kathmandu has been experiencing monsoons, but it was not raining at the time of the accident. However, visibility across the capital remained low.
Kathmandu Airport, the main airport serving Nepal, is located within a valley surrounded by mountains on most sides. It is considered a challenging airport for pilots and larger planes have to come through an opening in the hill to land. It is next to the city, and is surrounded by houses and neighborhoods.
The bodies have been taken to TU Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for postmortem. The flight report showed that there were two pilots and 17 passengers on board. The crew and 16 passengers have been identified as Nepali nationals and one passenger is a Yemeni national.
Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal’s main airport for international and domestic flights, was closed as emergency workers and investigators began their work.
Shourya Airlines operates Bombardier CRJ 200 aircraft on domestic routes.
In 2019, 51 people were killed and 20 survived when a Bangladeshi airliner crashed at Tribhuvan airport. An inquest heard the plane was wrongly positioned on the runway and its pilot became disoriented and tried to land in “sheer desperation” when the plane crashed.
In 2015, a Turkish Airlines jet skidded off a slippery runway at the airport after landing in thick fog. Although there were 238 people on board, there were no serious injuries.
