Eighteen bodies have been recovered from the small plane that caught fire after skidding off the runway during takeoff from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal’s Kathmandu on Wednesday, July 24.
The plane, a Saurya Airlines aircraft, had nineteen people, including aircrew, aboard and was bound for Pokhara when it met with the accident at around 11am, said Premnath Thakur, TIA spokesperson.
The pilot of the aircraft has been taken to a hospital, a security official deployed at the airport told PTI without giving further details.
The aircraft, operated by local carrier Saurya Airlines, was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to Pokhara city for maintenance checks, airport security chief Arjun Chand Thakuri said.
“The plane skidded off the runway and crashed into a field east of the runway,” Thakuri confirmed reported Reuters. The fire that erupted from the crash was extinguished by emergency responders.
Television footage showed firefighters battling the blaze as thick black smoke billowed into the sky.
