At least 50 dead as Bangladeshi plane crashes in Nepal

KATHMANDU: A Bangladeshi airliner crashed yesterday after making an unexpected turn in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the airport in Nepal’s capital, killing at least 50 people, officials said.

There were 71 people on board the US-Bangla Airlines plane arriving from Dhaka when it clipped the fence at Kathmandu and burst into flames, said Raj Kumar Chettri, the general manager of the hill-ringed airport.

Those aboard included 33 Nepali passengers, with 32 from Bangladesh, one from China and one from the Maldives.

“All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang,” one of the survivors, Basanta Bohora, told the Kathmandu Post daily. “I was seated near a window and was able to break out of the window.”

“We have recovered 50 dead bodies so far,” said army spokesman Gokul Bhandari. Although several people had been rescued from the burning wreckage of the Bombardier Q400 series aircraft, nine people were still unaccounted for, he added.