Nepal crash
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, told Kathmandu Post at Norvic Hospital. “I was seated near a window and was able to break out of the window.”
Officials said the air traffic controllers repeatedly asked the pilot why he had changed the alignment and route assigned to him for approaching the airport but there was no response. The conversation between the air traffic controllers and the pilot, which was made public, suggested the pilot ignored instructions from the ground.
Raj Kumar Chettri, general manager of the airport, told the news conference the aircraft was permitted to land from the southern side of the runway but it changed direction and attempted to land from northern side. “This was main reason behind the accident,” he said. “In our preliminary findings, the aircraft might have sustained some technical glitches but we are yet to ascertain the reason behind the unusual landing.”
Amanda Summers, an American who works in Nepal, watched the crash from the terrace of her home office, not far from the airport.
“It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains,” she said. “All of a sudden there was a blast and then another blast,” she added.
Flights to Tribhuvan International Airport were diverted after it was closed for more than two hours following the crash.
Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli telephoned his Bangladesh counterpart and expressed sorrow at the loss of lives in the crash.
Us-bangla Airlines is owned by Us-bangla Group, a joint venture firm with offices in Dhaka, New York, India and other Asian hubs. It has been operating since 2014 out of its home airport in Bangladesh and flies to several domestic and international destinations. The parent company is involved in a number of industries, including real estate, education and agriculture.
The Canadian-made Bombar- dier Dash 8 was 17 years old. Mahbubur Rahman of Bangladesh’s civil aviation ministry said: “There might be technical problems on the aircraft. But it has to be probed before making a final statement.”
Kathmandu has Nepal’s only international airport and experts say the surrounding Himalayan mountains makes it testing for pilots coming in to land.
“The landing at Kathmandu because of the terrain is a little challenging,” said Gabriele Ascenzo, a Canadian pilot who runs aviation safety courses in Nepal.
The accident was the deadliest since September 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed as it approached Kathmandu airport.