Passenger plane crashes during takeoff in Nepal, killing 18, aviation officials say

(NEW YORK) — At least 18 people were killed when a plane crashed during takeoff in Nepal on Wednesday, aviation officials said.

Nineteen people were on board when the Saurya Airlines flight went down at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, according to a notice from the Search and Rescue Coordination Center of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, which was posted online by the airport.

The domestic flight to Pokhara took off at 11:11 a.m., then “turned right and crashed on the east side of the runway,” aviation officials said.

“It is reported that the fire was brought under control and the rescue work was started immediately and the dead bodies of 18 people were collected and 1 injured person was rescued and taken to the hospital,” the statement said.

The flight’s pilot survived, the aviation authority said, identifying him as Captain Manish Rana Shakya. He was transported to a local hospital with critical injuries, officials said.

Officials released the flight’s manifest, which included 16 Nepali passengers and one Yemeni passenger. Officials said all were killed, along with the co-pilot, whose nationality was not listed.

A video streamed live on Facebook from the airport appeared to show people waiting at their departure gate watching in horror as plumes of dark smoke rise near the airport perimeter.

The plane, which aviation officials identified as a CRJ-200, was registered in Nepal as 9N-AME.

The European Commission includes all of Nepal’s air carriers, including Saurya, on its “Air Safety List,” banning them from operating within the European Union because of safety concerns.

A Yeti Airlines passenger plane crashed in Nepal in January 2023, killing all 72 people onboard, including two Americans, officials said.

That flight, which had also been traveling from Kathmandu to Pokhara, was the country’s deadliest plane crash since 1992, an official at the Rescue Coordination Center in Nepal told ABC News at the time.

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