Plane crashes just after takeoff from Nepal’s capital, killing 18 people. Pilot is lone survivor

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A plane crashed Wednesday just after taking off from Nepal’s capital, killing 18 people and injuring a pilot who was the lone survivor.

All the people aboard the Saurya Airlines flight including the co-pilot were Nepali except for one passenger, who was a Yemeni national, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said. Authorities have pulled all 18 bodies from the wreckage, police official Basanta Rajauri said.

The Bombardier CRJ 200 plane was heading to Nepal’s second-most populous city of Pokhara for maintenance work and most of the passengers aboard were either mechanics or airline employees, airport officials said. They were speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The pilot has injuries to his eyes but his life is not in any danger, said a doctor at Kathmandu Medical College Hospital, where the pilot is being treated. The doctor spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to reporters.

The plane took off from the Kathmandu airport at 11:11 a.m. local time and turned right but crashed moments later in the eastern section of the airport, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

“I came out and saw a plane had crashed and there was huge smoke and fire coming out,” said Ram Kumar Khatri Chetri, who own a car parts store barely 100 meters (330 feet) from the crash site. “There was chaos and confusion.”

“It was just horrible and there was no way that anyone could just go near the plane and help out when there was so much fire and even explosions,” he said.

It is the monsoon rain season in Kathmandu but was not raining at the time of the crash. Visibility was low across the capital, however.

The Kathmandu airport, the main airport serving Nepal, is inside a valley surrounded by mountains that make takeoffs and landings challenging for pilots. The airport is right next to the city, and is surrounded by houses and neighborhoods.

The bodies have been taken to the T.U. Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for autopsy. The airline manifest showed there were two pilots and 17 passengers on board.

Grieving relatives gathered at the hospital forensics department to collect the bodies of their loved ones, though they are not likely to be released for a day or two.

The co-pilot Sasant Katuwal had been flying only for the past three years after completing training in France, his uncle Dhyan Bahadur Khadka said at the hospital. He had just received a visa to go to Germany for further training and was excited about that, Khadka said.

Khadka said his nephew had a bright future in aviation. “His parents are grieving the loss of their only child,” Khadka said. “He was unmarried. He was not just tall and handsome, but he was well behaved,”

Tribhuvan International Airport, the main airport in Nepal for international and domestic flights, was closed for hours as emergency crew and investigators began their work.

Saurya Airlines operates the Bombardier CRJ 200 on domestic routes.

In 2019, a Bangladeshi airliner crashed at Tribhuvan airport, killing 51 people while 20 on board survived. An investigation confirmed the plane was misaligned with the runway and its pilot was disoriented and tried to land in “sheer desperation” when the plane crashed.

In 2015, a Turkish Airlines jet landing in dense fog skidded off a slippery runway at the airport. The plane was carrying 238 people but there were no serious injuries.