A total of 18 people are dead and only one survived after a plane explodes just minutes after taking off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal.
According to AP News, the Saurya Airlines plane, a Bombardier CRJ 200, was heading to Pokhara for maintenance work. Airport officials reported that the majority of passengers on the flight were notably mechanics or airline employees.
The plane took off from the Kathmandu Airport at approximately 11:11 a.m. local time. After turning right, the plane exploded in the eastern section of the airport.
Airport chief Jagannath Niraula then told BBC Nepali the plane exploded “as soon as it left the ground, in not even a minute”, though airport authorities have not been able to confirm the cause of the disaster.
“As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left,” he also explained
All but one of the people on board the plane were Nepali. A passenger was a Yemeni nation. The airline manifest further revealed there were two pilots and 17 passengers on board. After the plane exploded, authorities said they were able to recover 18 bodies from the wreckage. All of the bodies were then taken to the T.U. Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for autopsy.
Tribhuvan International Airport was closed for hours as the emergency crew and investigator conducted their investigation and cleanup.
The plane’s pilot survived and only sustained injuries to his eyes. He was transported to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital. His name has not been disclosed.
The Plane Explosion Is Considered The Deadliest Air Crash in Nepal Since 1992
BBC Nepal reports that the latest plane explosion is considered the deadliest air crash in Nepal since 1992.
The media outlet referred to the Pakistan International Airplane Flight 268, which crashed on its approach to the Tribhuvan International Airport. 167 people were on board, and no one survived.
According to the Aviation Safety Network, the aircraft was instructed to maintain 11500 feet and report at 16 DME (16 miles from the VOR/DME beacon), which is located 0,6 nm short of the runway. However, the arrival into Kathmandu was described as difficult, due to the airport being located in an “oval-shaped valley” that is surrounded by mountains as high as 9667 feet.
“The balance of evidence suggests that the primary cause of the accident was that one or both pilots consistently failed to follow the approach procedure,” the cause report reads. “And inadvertently adopted a profile which, at each DME fix, was one altitude step ahead and below the correct procedure. Why and how that happened could not be determined with certainty because there was no record of the crew’s conversation on the flight deck.”
The cause report added that contributory factors were thought to be the inevitable complexity of the approach. Another was the associated approach chart.