Kathmandu:

The small passenger plane involved in a crash that killed 18 people in Nepal in July was carrying a load and travelling at a speed that did not match guidelines at the time of the accident, a government-led investigation team said in a preliminary report on Friday.

The aircraft owned by Nepal’s Saurya Airlines crashed shortly after taking off from the capital Kathmandu on July 24, killing all 17 passengers and the co-pilot, with only the captain surviving.

The report said the airline had not complied with the “load weighing, loading and securing of load requirements” and that the plane speed given in the “operation flight plan of the event flight, as well as recorded in the FDR, were inconsistent with the Quick Reference Handbook”.

“We found problems with the plane’s speed and the load it was carrying. Also, proper, secure latching of load was absent,” Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, chairman of the probe team, told Reuters by phone.

The panel said that guidelines on baggage and cargo weighing, its distribution and latching should all be adhered to.

The 50-seater CRJ-200 plane carrying two crew members and 17 technicians was heading for regular maintenance to Nepal’s new Pokhara airport, which has aircraft maintenance hangars that are unavailable in adequate numbers at Kathmandu airport.

Those on board were Nepali citizens except for one engineer from Yemen.

Nearly 360 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes in the country since 2000.

Nepal has been criticised for its poor air safety record, where many airlines fly to small airports in remote hills and near mountains shrouded in cloud. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 tallest mountain peaks.

The country’s main airport is ringed by mountains, affecting wind direction and intensity and making takeoff and landing a challenge for pilots.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Security force personnel search for the victims at the site of a helicopter crash on the outskirts of Kathmandu on August 7, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Four Chinese tourists were among five people killed in Nepal on Wednesday (August 7, 2024) when a helicopter crashed in the mountains northwest region of Kathmandu.

The police have recovered five dead bodies from the crash site in Ward No. 7 of Shivapuri Rural Municipality, Nuwakot, My Republica newspaper reported.

Nepal-based Air Dynasty helicopter, 9N-AJD, was en route to Rasuwa from Kathmandu when it crashed. The helicopter departed from Kathmandu at 1:54 p.m. and was en route to Syaphrubensi when it crashed.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), “a Prabhu helicopter (9N-ANL) was dispatched to the crash site immediately after the incident.”

“There were five individuals on board, including four Chinese tourists,” the paper said. “The helicopter lost contact with the tower just three minutes after takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport,” according to the CAAN.

Citing a police official, the paper said that the bodies of two men, one woman and the pilot, identified as Arun Malla, were recovered from the crash site.

One body has not been identified yet as it is charred beyond recognition, My republica reported.

Superintendent of Police (SP) Shantiraj Koirala at the Nuwakot District Police Office — who reached the crash site —confirmed that five bodies had been recovered.

This crash comes just weeks after the Saurya Airlines plane crash at the Tribhuvan International Airport on July 24. The crash claimed the lives of 18 people on board, with the captain being the sole survivor.

This latest incident raises serious concerns about air safety over the skies of the Himalayan nation, which has witnessed numerous air crashes in recent years.

When Manu Raj Sharma, a technician with Saurya Airlines, boarded his company’s aircraft with his wife Priza Khatiwada and four-year-old son Adhiraj on Wednesday morning, the Kathmandu sky was clear after an overnight rain, perfect for a regular flight.

There were 15 others onboard the plane, including three crew members.

Around 11 a.m., the 50-seater Bombardier CRJ-200 jet was cleared for takeoff from the Tribhuvan International Airport from the southern end of the runway (Runway 02). It was bound for the tourist town of Pokhara, a 25-minute flight west of Kathmandu.

But shortly after the takeoff, at 11:11 a.m., the aircraft veered off the runway, banking to the right, and plunged into a gorge on the east of the airstrip. In no moment, it was a ball of fire. A huge plume of smoke billowed out.

Rescue operations were initiated immediately and the fire was brought under control. But 18 people, including the Sharma family, had already died.

“One injured person (Captain Manish Ratna Shakya) was rescued and 18 people were found dead,” said the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) in a statement.

All aboard the plane were Nepalese except one, who has been identified by CAAN as a Yemeni national.

Worst disaster

This is the most disastrous plane accident in Nepal in 18 months, since its worst domestic aviation disaster on January 15 last year when a Yeti Airlines plane from Kathmandu crashed a few minutes before landing at the newly built Pokhara International Airport, killing all 72 people onboard, including the crew. The previous year in May, 22 people died when a Tara Air plane en route from Pokhara to the tourist destination of Jomsom slammed into a mountain. Besides 16 Nepalese, including three crew, there were four Indian and two German nationals in the plane.

Wednesday’s crash is the 105th in Nepal since the country recorded its first air disaster in August 1955. According to Nepal’s civil aviation authority, 914 people had died in air disasters until 18 people perished in the latest Saurya Airlines fatal crash.

Some of the airports in Nepal’s mountain regions are quite tricky to land on and quickly changing weather conditions pose an additional challenge even for the accomplished pilots. Wednesday’s case was different though. The Saurya plane was set to fly from one of the most equipped airports in the country to another in perfect weather conditions.

Detailed check

The Saurya Airlines 9N-AME plane on Wednesday was on a non-scheduled flight. Airline officials said the aircraft was heading to Pokhara for a comprehensive inspection called C Check, which is carried out every 18 to 24 months. The company had booked one of the hangars at the Pokhara International Airport where its technicians were scheduled to conduct the inspection.

According to Flightradar24 flight tracking, the plane was built in 2003. It was handed over to Saurya in 2017. “The aircraft was not equipped with a modern ADS-B transponder, so it was not tracked on Flightradar 24,” the flight tracker wrote on X, immediately after the crash.

CAAN said it had 50 to 60 hours of flying time remaining before the scheduled inspection.

Questions abound

Saurya Airlines’ passenger manifest initially had identified all aboard the plane as company staff, only to make it clear later that the wife and son of a technician were also among the passengers.

Established in 2014, the company had been going through a rough patch recently and its planes were even grounded in 2018 for failing to pay debts to the airport.

Questions had been raised about its safety standards for skipping even regular inspections. According to the company website, the airline operates flights to five destinations with a fleet of three Bombardier CRJ-200 jets. But it was operating only one aircraft of late.

In May last year, it issued a notice about laying off staff in view of its bad financial health and scaling down operations.

Poor record

Wednesday’s crash once again has brought to the fore the oft-asked question about Nepal’s poor air safety record due to which the European Commission (EC) has imposed a ban on Nepalese airlines in European skies for more than a decade. The EC and the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) have repeatedly called on Nepalese authorities to split CAAN so that there would be a clear distinction between two entities — one as the operator and the other as regulator. Currently, CAAN functions as both.

But to split the civil aviation body, new laws are required. Amid repeated calls from the EC and ICAO, the Nepal government on February 23, 2020 had registered two bills in Parliament. They were passed by the Upper House on August 2, 2021, but the successive governments and Ministers, despite their promises to get the bills through the lower house, have shown little interest in doing so.

The EC imposed a blanket ban on Nepalese airlines from flying into the 28-nation bloc following a Sita Air plane crash in September 2012 near Kathmandu airport, minutes after takeoff. All 19 people onboard, including seven British citizens, died. An already concerned EC then banned Nepalese airlines from entering Europe, saying not much was being done to improve the air safety standards despite repeated incidents of air crashes.

Lax regulations are to blame for Nepal’s poor air safety record, and as long as the CAAN is not bifurcated, the situation is unlikely to improve, says Hemant Arjyal, who has closely followed Nepal’s aviation sector and written extensively on the subject for years.

“The bills have failed to get through the Parliament because of politicians as well,” he said. “Either they have absolutely no idea about what purpose the bifurcation of the CAAN serves or they are getting some benefits because the aviation body performs the dual role.”

Outrage in Nepal

Nepalese were enraged by Wednesday’s crash, blaming politicians for their apathy toward the frequent plane crashes as well as road accidents. Many took to social media to ask why Nepal has yet to split the CAAN so as to ensure air safety, as they called out politicians for failing to work in earnest to prevent the deaths of fellow citizens in the skies and on the roads.

Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli’s visit to the crash site on Wednesday afternoon further angered the public, who questioned the rationale behind such visits to accident sites and dubbed it “disaster tourism” by politicians.

Mr. Oli was appointed Prime Minister on July 14, two days after his predecessor Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ lost his vote of confidence. People’s anger was directed at politicians also because the day Mr. Dahal was seeking a vote of confidence on July 12, two buses carrying more than 60 people had plunged into the swollen Trishuli river in Chitwan. Search is still on to find the bodies.

Nepalese were further angered by the Oli government’s decision to fly the flag at half-mast on Thursday in memory of those killed in the plane crash, as they pointed at the State’s discrimination between those killed in air disasters and road accidents.

Probe begins

An emergency Cabinet meeting on Wednesday decided to form a probe committee to investigate the Saurya Airlines crash. “A five-member committee has been set up under the leadership of Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, former director general of CAAN,” said Communications Minister Prithvi Subba Gurung, who is also the government spokesperson. “The committee has been given 45 days [to submit its report].”

Kathmandu:

Three members of a family, including a child, were among 18 people killed when a Nepalese plane crashed and caught fire shortly after taking off from the Tribhuvan International Airport here on Wednesday.

The Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft of Saurya Airlines, carrying 19 people, including two crew members and technical staff of the airline, was bound for Pokhara International Airport for regular maintenance service when the accident occurred at 11.11 am (local time).

Manu Raj Sharma, a technician of the airline, his wife Priza Khatiwada and their four-year-old son Adhi Raj Sharma, died in the crash, My Republica newspaper reported.

Priza worked as an assistant computer operator at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation.

A statement issued by Saurya Airlines said that Priza and her son were initially identified as employees of the company, but it was later revealed that they were passengers.

Videos posted online showed the plane being enveloped in fire and smoke. Fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the spot after the incident.

Of the victims, 15 died on the spot while three died during treatment at a local hospital, authorities said. A Yemeni national, who was an airline staff, also died in the crash.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli said he was deeply saddened by the tragic deaths in the crash and was at the site to inquire about the cause of the air crash with the Civil Aviation Authority’s officials. He urged all for patience at this hour of grief.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

A frightening new video has emerged of the Bombardier CRJ 200 jet that crashed at the Nepal’s Kathmandu airport at 11.15 am (local time). The video captures the final few seconds of the crash.

The clip begins shortly after take-off, with the plane already out-of-control and just a few hundred feet off the ground. Seconds later the plane – a Saurya Airlines service to the tourist hub of Pokhara – which was tilting to the right, jerks to its left and plunges to the ground, exploding in a ball of fire.

There were 19 people – two crew members and 17 staff – of whom 18 have died, authorities said. The lone survivor is the pilot, who has been rushed to a local hospital, a security official at the airport said.

There is no news yet on what caused the crash.

Earlier today an equally shocking video showed the moment the plane hit the ground.

VIDEO | Exact Moment Saurya Airlines Plane Crashed At Kathmandu Airport

The 18-second video, from a CCTV camera at the airport, showed the plane slamming into the runway, skidding along the ground, and bursting into flames.

#BREAKING | Video Shows Exact Moment Plane Crashed At Kathmandu Airport #NepalPlaneCrash#Kathmandu#Nepalpic.twitter.com/saj1eUNN9m

— NDTV (@ndtv) July 24, 2024

Nepal’s aviation sector has boomed recently but the expansion has been marred by poor safety standards, inadequate training, and maintenance issues. As a result, the European Union has banned Nepali carriers from entering its airspace. The Himalayan country’s challenging topography – which sees high-altitude runways surrounded by mountainous terrain – challenge even the most experienced pilots.

The weather in these regions is also notoriously unpredictable, further complicating aviation safety.

READ | Kathmandu Crash: Nepal Home To Some Of World’s Trickiest Runways

In January last year a Yeti Airlines plane crashed while landing in Pokhara, resulting in the death of all 72 on board. That incident was Nepal’s deadliest plane crash since 1992, when a Pakistani jet crashed in Kathmandu, killing all 167 on board. The same year, a Thai Airways flight crashed killing 113.

The Nepal crash has also put the focus on tabletop runways in India and the associated dangers.

Table-top runways are located on top of hills or elevated terrain. This means there is a steep drop on one or more sides, and leaves a very slim margin of error if the plane overshoots the runway.

READ | Nepal Crash Red-Flags Table-Top Runways Risk, India Has 5

Five airports in India have table-top runways – Shimla, Kozhikode, Mangaluru, Lengpui (in Mizoram) and Pakyong (in Sikkim). Of these, those in Kozhikode and Mangaluru have seen big crashes.

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New Delhi:

The plane crash in Nepal that left 18 people dead has yet again put the spotlight on table-top runways that have been the site of major plane accidents across the world.

Table-top runways are located on an elevated level than the surrounding terrain. This means there is a steep drop on one or more sides of the runway and this leaves a very slim margin of error for the pilot because if the plane overshoots the runway, it will crash down.

Five airports in India have table-top runways — Shimla, Calicut, Mangalore, Lengpui (Mizoram) and Pakyong (Sikkim). Of these, the airports in Kerala and Mangalore have seen big crashes in the past. On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangaluru crashed on landing at and 158 passengers, including six crew members, were killed.

Ten years later, on August 7, 2020, another table-top runway became the site of a tragedy. The Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode was part of the Vande Bharat mission to bring back Indian nationals stranded due to Covid pandemic. The plane skidded off the table-top runway and crashed below. Nineteen passengers and both pilots died, but 169 others survived.

Civil Aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, holds periodical reviews of table-top airports to ensure passenger safety. Back in 2022, an official of the DGCA had told the media that the objective behind the review was to prevent any unforeseen incidents and look for ways to make landings in these airports less challenging.

Portugal’s Madeira airport, which has a table-top runway, reported a crash back in 1977 when an Air Portugal Flight 425 overshot and crashed onto a beach, killing 131 people.

Even Nepal, which has a poor air travel safety record, has reported crashes involving table-top runways in the past. On May 27, 2017, a cargo plane at crashed at the Tenzing-Hillary airport in Solukhumbu, which has such a runway.

In the crash that took place this morning, the Bombardier CRJ 200 flight skidded off the runway and burst into flames, a spokesperson of the airport has told NDTV. Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu, where the crash took place, is on the top of a plateau and is surrounded by deep gorges and valleys on all sides. Kathmandu airport is among the most risky airports to land and was the site of a huge crash back in 1992, when 167 passengers of a Pakistan International Airlines plane had died. The Saurya Airlines flight that crashed today had crew and technical staff on board and was on its way to Pokhara.

Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.

But it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance — issues compounded by the mountainous republic’s treacherous geography.

The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.

The Himalayan country has some of the world’s trickiest runways to land on, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.

The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.

Nepal’s last major commercial flight accident was in January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines service crashed while landing at Pokhara, killing all 72 aboard.

That accident was Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.

Earlier that year a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.

– AFP