A small plane with 19 people on board crashed on take-off from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, according to The Independent.
The plane was heading to Pokhara, Nepal’s second-largest city and a major tourist gateway for trekking and adventure sports. According to local media, the plane crashed around 11 a.m. local time on Wednesday.
An official spokesperson reported that 18 bodies were recovered from the crash site and the pilot sustained head injuries and was taken to hospital.
Premnath Thakur, spokesperson for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, said crew members were among the 19 people on board the aircraft. Local media also reported that a 9N-AME (CRJ 200) aircraft was carrying only technical staff of the airline and there were no passengers on board, quoting Gyanendra Bhul, information officer at Tribhuvan International Airport.
Eyewitnesses reported that during take-off the aircraft suddenly flipped over and its wing tip hit the ground, causing a fire. The aircraft then crashed into a gorge on the east side of the runway. The aircraft was reportedly taken to Pokhara for maintenance.
On January 15 last year, 72 people were killed when a twin-engine ATR 72-500 aircraft of Yeti Airlines crashed into a gorge while approaching Pokhara International Airport in the Himalayan foothills. The crash site was about 1.6 km from the runway, at an altitude of about 820 metres.
It was the deadliest plane crash in Nepal since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hillside on the approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board.
