2024-07-27 14:25:26
A plane crash in Kathmandu on Wednesday killed 18 of the 19 people on board, police in the Nepalese capital said, leaving the pilot the sole survivor.
Nepal, located in the Himalayas, has had a series of crashes of light aircraft and helicopters in the past few decades.
“Eighteen bodies have been found, one of them a foreigner,” police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told AFP. “We are in the process of taking them to the morgue.”
“The pilot was rescued and is undergoing treatment,” he added.
The spokesman explained that the “Souria Airlines” flight was carrying a crew of two people and 17 company employees on a test flight.
Gyanendra Bhole of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority confirmed to AFP that the flight was for technical or maintenance purposes, without providing further details.
Bahadur and Paul could not confirm the nationality of the only foreigner on the plane.
The website of Sauria Airlines indicates that it only operates Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft.
The plane crashed at around 11:15 a.m. (05:30 GMT), the army said in a statement, adding that the army’s rapid response team was assisting in rescue efforts.
The flight was on its way to Pokhara, a major tourist destination in the Himalayan country.
Photos of the incident released by the Nepalese military showed the plane’s fuselage split and burned, with about a dozen soldiers standing on the wreckage as fire-fighting materials covered the area.
Khabarhab news website reported that a fire broke out in the plane after it deviated from its course on the runway.
– Safety concerns –
Nepal’s aviation sector has boomed in recent years, transporting cargo, people and foreign climbers between hard-to-reach areas.
But it suffers from a safety problem due to inadequate training and maintenance, a problem exacerbated by the country’s rugged, mountainous terrain.
The European Union has banned all Nepalese airlines from flying over its airspace over safety concerns.
The Himalayan country has some of the world’s most difficult landing strips, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, which can be a challenge for even the most skilled pilots.
Weather can also change quickly in the mountains, causing unstable flying conditions.
The last major commercial flight accident in Nepal occurred in January 2023 when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed while landing in Pokhara, killing all 72 people on board.
It was the deadliest aviation accident in Nepal since 1992 when all 167 passengers on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.
Earlier that month, a Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
Last updated: July 24, 2024 – 18:11
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2024-07-27 14:25:26