A passenger plane crashed on takeoff in Kathmandu on Wednesday, killing all 18 people on board, according to police in Nepal’s capital.
Nepal has a poor track record in aviation safety, with a number of tragic light plane and helicopter crashes throughout the years.
According to Nepali police spokesman Dan Karki, the Saurya Airlines flight had two crew members and 17 employees on board.
“The pilot has been rescued and is being treated,” he said. “Eighteen bodies have been recovered, including one foreigner. We are in the process of taking them for a postmortem.”
According to the Civil Aviation Authority, the dead foreigner was a Yemeni citizen.
According to the airport’s news release, the aircraft “veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway” shortly after takeoff.
According to the report, the survivor was in bad condition in the hospital. Ram Kumar K.C., who owns a tyre shop near the crash site, told AFP that the jet caught fire after striking the ground.
“We were about to run to the site, but then there was an explosion, so we ran away again,” the 48-year-old said.
Gyanendra Bhul of Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority told AFP that the flight was for technical or maintenance purposes.
The Nepalese military published images of the aftermath, which showed the plane’s fuselage torn apart and burned to a husk.
Around a dozen soldiers in camouflage stood on top of the debris, with the surrounding ground doused in fire retardant.
Dozens of bereaved relatives gathered outside a neighbouring hospital after the bodies were taken from the disaster site.
“I am heartbroken,” Rajan Acharya, the brother of a safety officer aboard the flight, told AFP. “He was my brother, but even more than that, we were best friends.”
The jet was scheduled to fly between Kathmandu and Pokhara, Nepal’s busiest air route and a major tourist destination.
According to its website, Saurya Airlines exclusively operates Bombardier CRJ 200 planes.
