18 people were killed after a plane crashed and caught fire while it was taking off from Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu on Wednesday.The pilot, who is currently receiving treatment in hospital, is the only survivor of the fatal accident.
Nineteen people were on the Saurya Airlines test flight, including technical staff members of the airline and two crew members. Nepal’s aviation industry has a poor safety record – that has been attributed to multiple factors over the years, from unpredictable weather to lax regulations.
The incident happened at around 11:15 local time (05:30 GMT), a few minutes after the plane took off from the Tribhuvan International Airport, according to a statement by the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s search and rescue coordination centre.
However, the head of the Tribhuvan International Airport said that an initial assessment showed that the plane had flown in the wrong direction.
“As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left,” airport chief Jagannath Niraula told BBC Nepali.