49 killed in Nepal plane crash
KATHMANDU: A Bangladeshi airliner with 71 people on board crashed and burst into flames while landing in Kathmandu on Monday, killing 49 people and injuring more than 20 others in the worst aviation disaster to hit Nepal in nearly three decades.
The Us-bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka swerved repeatedly as it descended towards Tribhuvan International Airport, witnesses said. The plane crashed during a second attempt to land after an unexpected turn in cloudy weather, they added.
The Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft came down east of the runway and careened into a football field. Rescue teams had to cut apart the mangled and burned wreckage of the upturned plane to pull people out.
“Forty people died at the spot and nine died at two hospitals in Kathmandu,” police spokesman Manoj Neupane said, adding another 22 were being treated in hospital, some in a critical condition. The dead included a newly married Bangladeshi couple on their honeymoon.
A statement from airport authorities said the plane was “out of control” as it came in to land. The authorities also told a news conference the pilot descended from a route opposite to the one assigned by air traffic controllers. The twin-engine turboprop airliner was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members, said airport spokesman Prem Nath Thakur. The two pilots and two cabin crew were Bangladeshi nationals. The passengers included 33 from Nepal, 32 from Bangladesh, and one each from China and the Maldives.
Local media reported some of the Nepalese passengers were college students returning from a holiday. There was also a group of 16 Nepalese travel agents in the aircraft. Huge plumes of smoke were seen over the airport after the plane crashed at 2.40 pm local time and caught fire.
“All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang,” Basanta Bohora, one of the survivors, said.
THE PLANE CRASHED DURING A SECOND ATTEMPT TO LAND AT TRIBHUVAN INT’L AIRPORT AFTER AN UNEXPECTED TURN IN CLOUDY WEATHER