Eighteen dead after plane bursts into flames and crashes during takeoff
Eighteen people have been killed after a passenger plane burst into flames and crashed into a gorge during takeoff.
The craft, which had 19 people on board, was set to fly from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, to the nearby city of Pokhara.
Only the captain survived the crash, and is being treated in hospital with a head injury, said an airport spokesman.
The crash happened at around 11am local time on Wednesday, the Kathmandu Post reports.
Nineteen people, including crew members, were aboard the plane, according to local media. Eighteen bodies have since been recovered.
The plane was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to Pokhara city to repair another aircraft, officials said.
Eyewitnesses reports say that the plane was taking off from the Southern-end of the runway and suddenly flipped with the wing tip hitting the ground.
The aircraft caught fire immediately and then plunged to a gorge on the eastern side of the runway.
Police and firefighters are still at the scene carrying out rescue operations, and thick billows of smoke can be seen at the airport.
Tribhuvan International Airport, the main airport in Nepal for international and domestic flights, has been closed as emergency crew worked.
It is monsoon rainy season in Kathmandu but was not raining at the time of the crash. Visibility was low across the capital, however.
Saurya Airlines operates the Bombardier CRJ 200 on domestic routes.
On 15 January last year, 72 people were killed when a twin-engine ATR 72-500 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines plunged into a gorge while approaching Pokhara International Airport in the Himalayan foothills.
The crash site was located approximately 1.6 kilometres from the runway, at an elevation of about 820 metres.
A report by investigators later revealed that the pilots mistakenly cut power which caused the January crash that killed all those on board.
It was Nepal’s deadliest air crash since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hillside on approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board.
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