On Wednesday a plane crashed and caught fire while taking off from Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, killing eighteen people. The flight, which was heading for Pokhara as part of a routine maintenance check, crashed at about 11:15, a few minutes after it took off from Tribhuvan International Airport.  

On Thursday, the aircraft was supposed to undergo a month-long maintenance schedule. According to Reuters news agency, Saurya Airlines marketing head Mukesh Khanal stated, “It is unclear why it crashed.” 

The pilot, pulled from the flaming wreckage, is the only survivor of the tragic accident and is now undergoing treatment in a hospital. The pilot had lacerations on his forehead and eyes, according to police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki, but his life was not in jeopardy. 

Two crew members and seventeen company personnel, including technical staff, were on board the Saurya Airlines test flight. It was headed west, to Pokhara, the popular tourist destination in the Himalayas. The aviation sector in Nepal has a dismal safety record, which has been ascribed to several things over the years, including erratic weather patterns and loose laws. 

Plane Crash

“There was a very loud noise, it sounded like maybe a truck had overturned on the road,” stated a man who was inside a nearby shop at the time of the accident. “We ran after we saw [the crash]. After striking the ground, the aircraft caught fire. We were going to rush to the location, but an explosion happened, so we had to flee once more,” he said to the AFP news agency.  

The plane was captured on camera tilting over the runway and then crashing into the ground, catching fire. It was soon covered in smoke and flames. Pictures showed rescuers sifting through the debris, much of the aircraft completely burned and blackened. Parts of the aircraft appeared to be inside an air freight container in photos taken in the aftermath. Following the incident, ambulances and fire engines were dispatched to the scene. Of the deceased, seventeen were Nepali nationals and one was an engineer by nationality from Yemen.