Domestic airplane with 19 onboard crashes in Kathmandu after skidding off runway during take off; pilot sole survivor

A domestic plane with 19 people on board skidded off the runway and crashed on the morning of July 24 while trying to take off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, killing all but one.

A total of 18 people on board died with only the pilot surviving the crash. He has sustained eye injuries and has been rushed to the hospital. All bodies have been recovered, Nepal police involved in the search operation told Education Post.

The plane belonging to Saurya Airlines was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to Pokhara city for maintenance checks, Airport Security Chief Arjun Chand Thakuri had said earlier. However, Saurya Airlines later clarified that two of the passengers were airline technician Manu Raj Sharma's wife Priza Khatiwada and their four-year-old child Adhiraj Sharma, who had been “mistakenly referred to as staff” in the list of passengers that was released shortly after the crash.

While 18 of the deceased are Nepali nationals, one of them, Aref Reda, belongs to Yemen.

The Saurya Airlines flight, 9N-AME, crashed at about 11:10 am, sending up plumes of black smoke that could be seen from across Kathmandu city.

The accident occurred after the flight suffered a runway excursion during takeoff, said airport spokesperson Subash Jha, adding that the 37-year-old pilot, Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, the lone survivor of the crash, was rushed to the Kathmandu Medical College (KMC) hospital, where he is undergoing treatment. Shakya's condition is said to be stable.

According to eyewitnesses, the plane was taking off from the southern end of the runway (Koteshwor side) after which it suddenly flipped with the wing tip hitting the ground, as reported by The Kathmandu Post.

The aircraft caught fire immediately and plunged into a gorge on the eastern side of the runway—between Buddha Air hanger and the radar station. However, it is not clear how the aircraft flipped.

Visuals emerging from the site showed thick balls of smoke and plane wreckage scattered all over a ditch. The fire was quickly brought under control.

Saurya Airlines operates domestic flights in Nepal with two Bombardier CRJ-200 regional jets, both around 20 years old, according to Flight Radar 24.

Tribhuvan International Airport, Nepal's sole international airport, has been closed as emergency crew worked.

Despite being the monsoon season in Nepal, it was not raining at the time of the crash. However, visibility was low across the Himalayan nation's capital.

Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountain peaks, has for long faced criticism over its poor air safety record owing to small airports in remote hills and close to peaks shrouded in clouds.

Since 1990, dozens of plane and helicopter crashes in the country have claimed over 400 lives, with the deadliest one occurring in 1992 when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus crashed into a hillside near Kathmandu, killing 167 people.

In January last year, 72 people, including five Indians, died after a Yeti Airlines flight crashed just before landing in Nepal’s tourist city of Pokhara.

Rohit Wadhwaney in Kathmandu contributed to this story.