All 19 people, mostly foreigners, aboard a Dornier aircraft of a private airline were killed today as the plane crashed minutes after taking off from the Tribhuvan International Airport here.
Sixteen passengers and three crew members who were heading towards Lukla, gateway to Mt Everest, were killed when the small aircraft belonging to Sita Airways crashed two minutes after it took off at 6:15 am (local time), airport officials said.
The plane had caught fire as soon as it took off and it crashed at the bank of the Manahara river in Koteshwor region, near a slum area, just 2-3 km south of the airport, the officials said.
All the passengers are said to be foreigners and most of them are Italian tourists, according to preliminary reports.
The crew members are identified as Captain Bijaya Tandukar, co-Pilot Takeshi Thapa and airhostess Ruja Shakya.
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.