Security body spokesman Dan Bahadur Karki said the aircraft was carrying two crew members and 17 employees from the local company.
“The pilot was rescued and is being treated,” he said. Apart from him, “others have been found 18 corpses, including that of a foreigner“.
Airport authorities communicated through a statement that The pilot is in “serious condition”.
Read more: Walks of almost 6 hours a day: the arduous work of the rescuers to reach where the missing plane crashed
They said the plane “veered to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway” shortly after takeoff.
Basanta Rajauri said the pilot was taken to the emergency room of a university hospital. Local medical sources explained that the man was in a eye injuries.
The aircraft was heading to Pokharaa major tourist destination in the country, located between India and Tibet.
Gyanendra Bhul, a representative of the civil aviation authority, told AFP that The reason for the flight was maintenance tasks or techniques, without further details.
🇳🇵 | URGENT
Plane crashes in Nepal. At least 18 dead so far. pic.twitter.com/GiwFUVkAH1
— UHN Plus (@UHN_Plus) July 24, 2024
The Civil Aviation Authority announced that The deceased foreigner was originally from Yemen.
In images shared by the army, the remains of the broken, medium-sized, and charred plane can be seen.
The plane crashed at around 11:15 a.m. local time (05:30 GMT), the military said, adding that its rapid response team was assisting with the rescue. search and rescue tasks.
The Khabarhub news website reported that the plane caught fire after leaving the runway.
Read more: Aeronautics explains why there was a yellow alert at La Aurora Airport due to an aircraft
Poor safety standards
According to the Saurya Airlines website, it only uses Bombardier CRJ 200 aircraft. The Nepalese company offers only local trips.
Ram Kumar KC, manager of a tyre shop near the site of the accident, told AFP that The plane caught fire shortly after landing..
“We were about to run to the place, but there was an explotion and we ran out of there,” said the 48-year-old man.
Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal’s main airport for both domestic and international flights, was closed as emergency crews worked at the crash site.
2024-07-24: Saurya Airlines CRJ-200 had crashed on take-off at Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Intl Airport(VNKT), Nepal with 19 people on board. The flight was bound for Pokhara. More to come.. pic.twitter.com/mKZ0gql4sY
— JACDEC (@JacdecNew) July 24, 2024
Nepal’s aviation industry has grown rapidly in recent years, facilitating the transport of people and goods to hard-to-reach areas, as well as mountaineers.
However, it has been affected by its poor safety standardsdue to insufficient training and poor maintenance of the equipment.
You might be interested in reading: “It came off and rolled”: this is how passengers experienced the moment when the front wheel of the plane came off when it was about to take off
The country’s mountainous geography and changing weather conditions exacerbate these problems.
The European Union bans all Nepalese airlines from flying over its airspace for security reasons since 2013.
The last major accident involving a commercial aircraft occurred in January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines aircraft crashed while trying to land in Pokhara, where all 72 people on board died.
Also in Nepal Five Mexicans lost their livesmembers of the same family, and a local pilot in July 2023, when their plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
In 1992, 167 people died on board a Pakistani plane International Airlines when the plane crashed near Kathmandu airport.
A Thai Airways plane crashed near the airport that same year, killing 113 people.
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