Bangladesh plane swerved, flew dangerously low before crash
WHO WAS AT FAULT? Airliner, airport authorities blame each other for disaster
KATHMANDU: A Bangladesh passenger plane swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames as it landed on Monday in Kathmandu, killing 49 people, officials and witnesses said.
Rescuers cut apart the mangled and charred wreckage of the upturned aircraft to pull people out, while other passengers were found buried under debris that scattered as the plane hit the ground.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, but a statement from airport authorities said the plane was “out of control” as it came in to land.
However, Us-bangla Airlines CEO Imran Asif laid blame on the air traffic control, saying the controller “fumbled” the landing. “Our pilot is an instructor of this Bombardier aircraft. His flight hours are over 5,000 hours. There was a fumble from the control tower,” he said in Dhaka.
An airport source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there may have been confusion between air traffic control and the pilot over which end of the sole runway -- referred to as “Runway 02” and “Runway 20” -the plane was meant to land on.
Kathmandu airport briefly closed after the accident, forcing inbound flights to divert, but it has since reopened.
The plane -- a Canadian-made Bombardier Dash 8 turboprop -had circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, Mohammed Selim, the airline’s manager in Kathmandu, told Dhaka- based Somoy TV by telephone. The plane was 17 years old, company officials said.
“It should have come straight but it went in the other direction,” said airport cleaner Sushil Chaudhary, who saw the crash.
“I was worried it would hit another aircraft, but the pilot pulled the plane up. But then it crashed towards the field.”
“It sounded like a bomb went off,” said Kailash Adhikari, a driver for a fuel company working at the airport. He said it took 15 minutes for firefighters to extinguish the flames.
Bombardier said on Twitter it was saddened by the accident.
“Our thoughts are with those injured, and their families,” it said.
Us-bangla Airlines began operations in 2014, and its route between Dhaka and Kathmandu was its first international one, said the Capa-center for Aviation, a research group in Sydney.
Kathmandu’s airport has been the site of several deadly crashes. According to data from the Civil Aviation Authority Nepal, there have been 15 plane crashes between 2010 and 2017, leading to the collective death of 134.
The deadliest crash in the Himalayan country occurred in September 1992, when Pakistan International Airlines flight 268 crashed in Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board.
Nepal’s poor air safety record is largely blamed on inadequate maintenance, inexperienced pilots and substandard management. Accidents are common and Nepal-based airlines are banned from flying in European Union airspace.
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