Flight UBG211 swerved repeatedly as it prepared to land in Kathmandu

KATHMANDU, Nepal — A passenger plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh crashed and burst into flames as it landed on Monday in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, killing dozens of people with others rushed to area hospitals, officials said.

The death toll remained unclear amid the chaos of the crash and the rush of badly injured victims to hospitals.

The Bombardier Dash Q-400 aircraft, with 67 passengers and four crew members onboard, crashed while landing. The UBG211 flight was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Brigadier General Gokul Bhandari, the Nepal Army spokesman, said 50 people had died and the fate others was unknown.

Bishwo Raj Pokharel, a senior police official involved in the rescue operation, said: “Forty-nine people were killed and 17 others injured in the incident. Now we are carrying out rescue operations.”

Airline spokesman Kamrul Islam, said 33 of the passengers were Nepali, 32 were Bangladeshi, one was Chinese and one from the Maldives.

Sources said the aircraft was 17 years old, AFP reported.

An AP journalist who arrived at the scene soon after the crash saw the US-Bangla Airlines twin-propeller plane broken into several large pieces, with dozens of firefighters and rescue workers clustered of the