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Plane Crash In Nepal Killed Nineteen Passengers
By KTM Metro Reporter
September 28, 2012: at a press conference held to brief reporters, the Office of the Civil Aviation at the Kathmandu International Airport said that a Dornier aircraft belonging to the Sita Air Company had crashed nearby the airport after hitting a bird four minutes after taking off today morning. After the incident, the pilot communicated with the airport tower, and apparently tried to land on the bank of the Manahara River but the ill-fated plane caught fire immediately after hitting the ground.
At the press conference, General Manager Ratish Chandra Lal Suman said that the Black Box and RVC have been recovered from the crash site; the preliminary investigation suggested that the fatal accident occurred while the pilots were trying to change the direction and land the plane at the airport after noticing technical glitches, according to ‘The Himalayan Times’.
Firefighters and security people put off the fire burning the plane but could not save anyone of the nineteen passengers including three crewmembers. They were on the way to Lukla airport from where they were supposed to go for trekking and sight seeing.
Among the dead were seven Nepalis including three crewmembers, and seven Britons that had come to Nepal for trekking in the Everest Himalaya Region, and five Chinese nationals obviously also for going to the scenic areas.
Offering condolence to all the loved ones of the victims of the plane crash, Prime Minister Dr. Baburam Bhattarai promised to take measures to reduce such incidents of plane crash in the country in the future.
The government set up a five-member committee on holding investigation into the plane crash nearby the Kathmandu international airport today morning. Former Secretary to the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation Nagendra Prasad Ghimire is the head of the committee, and the members are Deputy Director (Engineering) of Agni Air Mahendra Kumar Shrestha, Trainer Pilot of Tara Air Rajesh Shrestha, Coordinator of Aviation Medical Board Ranjit Singh Baral and Joint Secretary to Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation Bhagat Singh Punmagar, according to ‘THT ONLINE.’ The committee has three months to complete the investigation and submit a report on it.
In May 2012, similar plane carrying nineteen passengers crashed at the Jomsom airport in the Western Nepal killing 15 of them on board. All of the victims were Indian pilgrims going to Muktinath: the abode of Lord Vishnu at the unique place of 14,000 ft behind the Himalayan Range. Obviously, the pilot could not dare to land at the Jomsom airport due to the high wind speed, and crashed the plane when he turned it back. After 9:00 AM wind blows from the south to the north until 4:00 PM along the Kaligandaki River that forms as a windpipe after the sunrise when the pressure in the Mustang area decreases.
Given the shortest possible airstrips at the mountains and the high mountains, Nepalese pilots need to be very skill in maneuvering airplanes at the most risky mountain areas, even minor mistakes lead them to accidents.
