by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Kathmandu : The death toll in the US-Bangla Airlines plane crash in Nepal climbed to 51 after two more people succumbed to injuries in hospital here on Tuesday as the Nepali government formed a probe panel to investigate the aviation disaster.
The Nepali Home Ministry said in a press release that 22 Nepalis, 28 Bangladeshis and a Chinese passenger lost their lives in Monday’s accident — the worst in the Himalayan nation since a 1992 Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) crash that claimed 167 lives.
The injured were receiving treatment at various hospitals in Nepal. There were 71 passengers, including four crew members on board when the ill-fated aircraft crashed on Monday while landing at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).
Investigators retrieved the flight data recorder from the wreckage of the plane. The aircraft caught fire when it narrowly escaped hitting the tail of a Thai Airways plane parked along the runway. The ill-fated plane was said to have circled the airport twice before trying to land, the Kathmandu Post reported.
According to preliminary findings, the 78-seater Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft crashed due to a communication error between the cockpit and the control tower. The airline and airport authorities blamed each other for the disaster.
While the airline blamed air traffic control, the airport said the plane landed from the wrong direction due to pilot’s “missed approach”.
Environment Minister Lal Babu Pandit told the media that a probe panel — to be headed by former Secretary Yagya Prasad Gautam — had been formed to investigate the aviation disaster.
Meanwhile, relatives of the Bangladeshi victims of the plane crash arrived here to identify their kin.
“One of our flights already reached Kathmandu with 46 relatives and family members of victims and officials. We are now working on bringing the bodies back home and ensuring medical treatment for injured victims,” a spokesman for the US-Bangla Airlines, Kamrul Islam, said.
Bangladesh’s Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism A.K.M. Shahjahan Kamal and Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali were in Nepal taking stock of the situation.
Two officials from Bangladesh’s Ministry of Planning, who were travelling to Nepal for a regional symposium on ecosystem services and poverty alleviation in South Asia, were among the dead.
Meanwhile, the Kathmandu-based Secretariat of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) conveyed condolences to the peoples and governments of Bangladesh and Nepal over the loss of lives in the horrific accident.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Kathmandu : At least 49 people were killed and 23 injured when a passenger plane of the US-Bangla Airlines crash-landed and exploded into a ball of flame at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) here on Monday, authorities said.
“Forty-nine people were killed in the incident. Now we are carrying out rescue operations,” Bishwo Raj Pokharel, a senior police official involved in the rescue operation at TIA, told Xinhua news agency.
The 78-seater Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft, with 71 people on board, was flying from Dhaka to Kathmandu. It veered off the runway and caught fire while landing at 2.20 p.m., said TIA spokesperson Prem Nath Thakur.
All flights in and out of the Tribhuvan International Airport were cancelled. The airport was reopened later.
Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal Sanjiv Gautam said the plane lost control when it attempted to land on the runway.
“The aircraft was permitted to land from the southern side of the runway flying over Koteshwor but it landed from the northern side,” said Gautam, adding that the aircraft might have sustained technical glitches.
“We are yet to ascertain the reason behind the unusual landing,” he said.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed smoke rising from the airport runway. Witnesses said the plane crashed when trying to take a sharp turn over the runway, My Republica reported.
“I saw the plane make a sharp turn over the terminal back towards south and then disappeared towards the runway. Then immediately a large plume of smoke was seen,” said Arnico Pandey, adding that the plane was flying very low, just enough to be above the control tower.
A survivor, Nepalese travel agent Basanta Bohora, recounted from his hospital bed his experience during the fateful crash-landing.
After a normal take-off from Dhaka, the plane began to behave strangely as it approached Kathmandu, he said.
“All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang,” he was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post.
“I was seated near the window and was able to break out of the window,” Bohora said.
“I have no recollection after I got out of the plane. Someone took me to Sinamangal Hospital and from there my friends brought me to Norvic (Hospital). I have received injuries to my head and legs, but I am fortunate that I survived the ordeal.”
Offering his condolences to the bereaved, Nepali Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli said he was “extremely shocked” by news of the crash and promised an immediate government investigation.
At least 33 Nepali passengers were on board the plane, according to officials. The US-Bangla Airlines is a privately-owned Bangladeshi airline headquartered in Dhaka.
This is the most severe air crash at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport after a Turkish Airlines flight crash-landed in March 2015.
—IANS