By Frank Kamuntu
Eighteen people were killed when a regional passenger plane belonging to Nepal’s Saurya Airlines crashed and caught fire while taking off from the capital Kathmandu on Wednesday, officials said.
The plane, carrying two crew members and 17 technicians, was going for regular maintenance to Nepal’s new Pokhara airport, which opened in January and is equipped with aircraft maintenance hangars, they said.
“Shortly after takeoff … the aircraft veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement.
Eighteen of those on board were Nepali citizens while one engineer was from Yemen, Saurya said.
“Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital,” said Tej Bahadur Poudyal, the spokesman for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.
Television visuals showed fire fighters trying to put out the blaze and thick black smoke rising into the sky. They also showed the plane flying a little above the runway and then tilting to its right before it crashed.
Other visuals showed rescue workers rummaging through the charred remains of the plane, strewn in lush green fields, and bodies being carried to ambulances on stretchers as local residents looked on.
“The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday … It is unclear why it crashed,” said Mukesh Khanal, marketing head of Saurya Airlines.
Kathmandu airport was closed temporarily following the crash but reopened within hours, officials said.
A Saurya Airlines official said the plane was a 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft with the registration 9N-AME.
