Photos: 18 people killed in a plane crash at Nepal’s Kathmandu airport
Al Jazeera
One pilot survives crash of domestic plane just after takeoff.
Eighteen people have been killed in the crash of a regional passenger plane belonging to Nepal’s Saurya Airlines during takeoff from the capital, Kathmandu, officials say.
The plane crashed on Wednesday and caught fire. It was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians and was going for regular maintenance to the new airport in Pokhara, 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, a spokesman for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.
