New Delhi — At least 18 people on board a small plane were killed Wednesday when it crashed shortly after taking off from the airport in Nepal's capital Kathmandu. The pilot of the plane was the lone survivor, national aviation officials said. He was being treated for serious injuries at a local hospital.
A fire broke out on the aircraft not long after it took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, and it quickly crashed to the ground near one of the runways. The incident happened at around 11:15 local time (12:30 a.m. Eastern), according to a statement by the country's civil aviation authority.
The statement said the plane "crashed on the east side of the runway" and that the fire that had engulfed the aircraft "was brought under control and the rescue work started immediately."
Videos posted online showed the plane flying into the ground at a sharp angle, with its left wing pointed almost straight up into the air, crashing to the ground and being enveloped in flames. Dozens of rescuers, fire engines and ambulances arrived at the crash site, videos showed.
According to authorities, rescuers found 18 bodies at the crash site. All of the victims were Nepali nationals apart from one Yemeni.
The plane belonged to Nepal's Saurya Airlines, which operates domestic flights between the country's five primary airports.
Of the 19 people on the flight, 16 were technical staff of the airline, two were crew members, and the other was the pilot who survived. Nepali police posted a photo of the pilot being helped out of the wreckage on social media. He was visibly injured but concious.
The plane was destined for Pokhara, a popular tourist destination in the Himalayan nation known for its mountainous terrain and world-famous peaks, including the Mount Everest.
Nepal has a dismal history of aviation accidents, attributed largely to poor safety standards and unpredictable weather.
At least 68 people were killed when a Yeti Airlines plane crashed while landing at Pokhara in January last year. It was the country's deadliest air disaster since 1992, when 167 people on a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed in a crash near Kathmandu's Airport.
In 2022, at least 22 people died when a plane crashed into a mountainside. In 2016, a Tara Air Twin Otter flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu crashed after take-off, killing all 23 people aboard.
According to Flight Safety Foundation's Aviation Safety database, there have been 44 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
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