18 dead after plane slips off runway and crashes at Nepal airport

A domestic plane slipped off the runway and crashed while trying to take off from the airport serving Nepal’s capital, killing 18 passengers and injuring the pilot.

Police official Basanta Rajauri said authorities have pulled out all 18 bodies.

The only survivor was the pilot, who was taken to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital for treatment, said a doctor at the hospital who was not authorised to speak to media.

The pilot has injuries to the eyes but is not in any danger, the doctor said.

The Saurya Airlines plane was heading from Kathmandu to the resort town of Pokhara.

It was not clear how it slipped.

Local media images showed smoke rising and plane wreckage scattered all over a ditch. A fire has been brought under control.

“I came out and saw a plane had crashed and there was huge smoke and fire coming out,” said Ram Kumar Khatri Chetri, who owns a car parts store barely 100m 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 rainy season in Kathmandu but it was not raining at the time of the crash. Visibility was low across the capital, however.

Tribhuvan International Airport, the main airport in Nepal for international and domestic flights, has been closed as emergency crew worked.

Saurya Airlines operates the Bombardier CRJ 200 on domestic routes.

In 2019, a Bangladeshi plane 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.