Runway ‘confusion’ before plane crash in Nepal killed 49 people
There was uncertainty between the pilot and air traffic control before Nepal’s deadliest plane crash in decades on Monday, an aviation expert said after reviewing the plane’s recordings.
“There is certainly considerable confusion from air traffic as to which runway the aircraft wants to land on,” said aviation analyst Andrew Blackie.
Authorities recovered the flight data recorder from the charred wreckage of the plane, which crashed into a football field near Kathmandu airport, killing 49 people.
Witnesses have described how the US-Bangla Airways plane carrying 71 people abruptly changed direction moments before it crashed.
On Monday, airline chief executive Imran Asif said there had been a “fumble from the control tower” as the plane approached the single runway.
But airport manager Raj Kumar Chhetri said it was too early to say what had caused the country’s deadliest crash since 1992.
“It is yet to be identified whether the pilot or air traffic control was wrong,” Mr Chhetri said. He said the investigation would be carried out with Bangladesh.
Recordings of the conversation between air traffic control and the pilot appear to show confusion over which end of Kathmandu airport’s runway the plane was to approach.
On the tapes, air traffic control clears the plane to land from the southern approach.
“You are going towards runway 20,” the controller says seconds later, referring to the northern end of the tarmac.
A series of confused messages follow before the crash, in which the pilot says they will land at “runway 20”, then “runway 02” – the southern end.
“I had asked the air hostess, ‘What is happening. Is everything fine?’” said Ashish Ranjit, 35, who escaped through a window on the plane’s right.
“She gave a thumbs-up but I could see she was panicking. It was so low and it took such sharp turns.”
The plane hit the runway and skidded through an airport fence, leaving a trail of fuel and coming to a stop in a field where it burst into flames.
Twenty-two passengers, most of them sitting on the right side of the plane, freed themselves by climbing through windows. Some were pulled out by passengers and rescuers.
Kathmandu airport is in a bowl-shaped valley with the Himalayas to the north, making it a challenging place to land. It has had more than 20 aviation accidents in the past decade, mostly involving small planes.
“Many of those are because of the challenges of operating in mountain airfields that surround Nepal,” said Mr Blackie, who was part of a team that investigated a 2016 crash of a small turboprop in Nepal.”
Experts said the Canadian-built Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 is a manoeuvrable plane developed to fly in Canada’s harsh Arctic north and should be at home in Nepal.