The bodies of 18 out of the 19 people on board a Kathmandu flight were recovered after the plane crashed at a Nepal airport on Wednesday, the country’s civil aviation authority said.
The passengers, comprising two crew and 17 of Saurya Airlines staff, were on board the Pokhara-bound plane when it caught on fire around 11 am, Nepali police spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki told news agency AFP.
The flight was being conducted for either technical or maintenance purposes. The pilot of the aircraft has been taken to a hospital, a security official deployed at the airport told news agency PTI.
The plane burst into flames after it skidded off the runway as it began to take off, a spokesperson of the airport told NDTV.
4 die after plane with 19 on board crashes during take-off at #NepalAirport
Read here: https://t.co/Qu2F18oQOZpic.twitter.com/Juq94bZOEG— NDTV (@ndtv) July 24, 2024
The CRJ200 plane, which can seat 50 passengers, did not gain any altitude on takeoff, slipped off the runway and fell down an embankment and caught fire. Videos from the spot show a large fire with plumes of smoke rising near the Tribhuvan International Airport.
Fire fighters and the Nepal army are at the spot. The cause of the fire is not known yet.
The Tribhuvan International Airport is a tabletop airport located on the top of a plateau surrounded by deep gorges and valleys on all sides. Its among theriskiest airports in the world.
Nepal air industry has some of the worst air safety records in the world, plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.
In 2023, a Yeti Airlines aircraft crashed on 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 plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.