Around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a Saurya Airlines plane crashed at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu.
The plane crashed as it took off from Kathmandu for Pokhara. Only the company’s technical staff was on board.
TIA information officer Gyanendra Bhul confirmed the event and said that some technical staff members were on board the plane at the time of the crash.
A doctor at the hospital who was not allowed to speak to the media said that 18 people were killed in the crash, but the pilot of the plane lived and was taken to the Kathmandu Medical College Hospital for treatment.
The pilot hurt his eyes, but the doctor said he was not in danger.
Images from the area showed smoke rising and pieces of a plane lying all over a ditch. A fire had been put out.
Ribhuvan Foreign Airport, Nepal’s main Airport for domestic and foreign flights, was closed while emergency crews worked. Nepal is in the middle of the summer rainy season, but it didn’t rain when the plane crashed. It was hard to see in the city, though. Saurya Airlines uses the Bombardier CRJ 200 on domestic flights.
In Pokhara, Nepal, in early January 2023, a Yeti Airlines plane crashed with 68 people on board. The accident killed all 68 people on board.