Nepal Plane Crash Kills 18 People After Takeoff
A small plane crashed while taking off from an airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, on Wednesday, killing 18 people on board, officials said.
The pilot of the Saurya Airlines flight was the only survivor and was seriously injured, the authorities said. The plane took off at 11:11 a.m. from Tribhuvan International Airport and was headed toward Pokhara, Nepal’s second biggest city and a Himalayan tourist destination, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement.
The plane then veered to the right before crashing on the east side of the runway and catching fire, the statement said. Officials said that the cause was not immediately clear and that there would be an investigation.
Among the dead were the plane’s co-pilot and one child, the aviation authority said. One passenger was from Yemen, while the others were Nepalese. Photos of the crash site from local media showed the charred wreckage of the plane scattered in pieces.
Nepal’s aviation sector has a poor safety record, with a string of crashes in recent years killing dozens. Tough, mountainous topography and unpredictable weather conditions are responsible in part for the country’s frequent plane crashes, according to experts.
Some experts also say the government has failed to properly regulate the industry. The Nepalese government is responsible for both regulating aircrafts and operating airports, which critics say presents a conflict of interest.
In January last year, a Yeti Airlines flight crashed in Pokhara while attempting to land at a newly built airport, killing all 72 people on board. Investigators later said the crash was caused by the pilot pulling the wrong levers while trying to land, changing the propeller angle instead of that of the wing flaps.
In May 2022, another aircraft belonging to Tara Air, a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, crashed in a mountainous region while flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, a village high in the Himalayas, killing all 22 passengers on board. In 2016, another Tara Air plane crashed while flying the same route, killing all 23 on board.
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