Domestic airplane with 19 onboard crashes in Kathmandu after skidding off runway during take off; pilot sole survivor
The ill-fated Saurya Airlines plane, carrying 15 airline technicians, a woman and a 4-year-old child, was headed to Pokhara for maintenance checks when the crash occurred shortly after 11 am. One foreigner is among the dead.
By Fatima hasanUpdated
.jpg&w=3840&q=75)
A domestic plane with 19 people on board skidded off the runway and crashed on the morning of July 24 while trying to take off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, killing all but one.
A total of 18 people on board died with only the pilot surviving the crash. He has sustained eye injuries and has been rushed to the hospital. All bodies have been recovered, Nepal police involved in the search operation told Education Post.
The plane belonging to Saurya Airlines was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to Pokhara city for maintenance checks, Airport Security Chief Arjun Chand Thakuri had said earlier. However, Saurya Airlines later clarified that two of the passengers were airline technician Manu Raj Sharma's wife Priza Khatiwada and their four-year-old child Adhiraj Sharma, who had been “mistakenly referred to as staff” in the list of passengers that was released shortly after the crash.
While 18 of the deceased are Nepali nationals, one of them, Aref Reda, belongs to Yemen.
The Saurya Airlines flight, 9N-AME, crashed at about 11:10 am, sending up plumes of black smoke that could be seen from across Kathmandu city.
The accident occurred after the flight suffered a runway excursion during takeoff, said airport spokesperson Subash Jha, adding that the 37-year-old pilot, Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, the lone survivor of the crash, was rushed to the Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) hospital, where he is undergoing treatment. Shakya's condition is said to be stable.
.jpg)
