At least 49 people were killed in a plane crash at Kathmandu airport. The plane had left the runway shortly after landing and caught fire. The plane broke into several parts. The pilot may have lost his bearings landing in the Himalayan state.
At least 49 people were killed in a plane crash at Kathmandu airport. 22 others were injured in the accident on Monday, police said in the Himalayan state. On board the Bangladesh-coming machine of the US-Bangla company were reportedly 71 people, including four crew members. The machine coming from Dhaka belonged to the company US-Bangla.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, who has only been in office since February, visited the airport and promised to clarify the cause of the accident.
The authorities spoke of one of the biggest aircraft accidents in the country.According to initial findings, the pilot had been confused because of the landing direction, reported the news portal “Nepali Times”. This resulted in the evaluation of the radio contact between the captain and the tower. The plane had landed on the airstrip, according to authorities and eye witnesses, broken up in a field and burst into flames. Photos showed charred aircraft parts and debris. A large cloud of smoke rose at the scene of the accident.
“We found 40 bodies in the plane,” said police spokesman Manoj Neupane. Nine other people have succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. On Tuesday, the corpses were to be identified.
Airport in Kathmandu closed
At Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, after the accident, all take-offs were temporarily canceled and incoming flights diverted to other destinations. The airport at 1338 meters has only one runway, which runs approximately in north-south direction. According to an eyewitness, the crashed machine should have flown in from the south, but then made an abrupt turn to the left and came dangerously close to the tower, reported the “Nepali Times”. Then she was out of sight, minutes later you could see smoke rising.
In Nepal, there have been repeated aircraft accidents in recent years. This is attributed among other things to poor maintenance of the machines and inexperienced pilots. The US-Bangla airline launched in July 2014 under the motto “fly fast, fly safely”. It flies to several destinations in South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.