19 killed as Everest-bound plane goes down in flames

A plane flying 19 people towards Mount Everest came down in flames on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital on Friday, killing everyone on board including seven Britons and five Chinese, police said.

The twin-engine Sita Air craft had just taken off from Kathmandu and was headed to the town of Lukla, gateway to the world’s highest mountain, when it plunged into the banks of a river near the city’s airport around daybreak.

Witnesses described hearing the screams of passengers and seeing flames coming from one of the plane’s wings moments before it hit the ground.

“The crash has caused the death of 12 foreigners, including seven British and five Chinese tourists. The remaining seven, including three crew members, are Nepalese,” police spokesman Binod Singh told AFP, adding there were no survivors.

The spokesman said the plane had crashed less than one kilometre (half a mile) from the airport at around 6:30 am (0045 GMT), next to the Manohara river.

“The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river but unfortunately the plane caught fire,” said Singh.

Tulasha Pokharel, a 26-year-old housewife who lives near the crash site, told AFP she was among the first on the scene.

“We could hear people inside the aircraft screaming, but we couldn’t throw water at the plane to put out the fire because we were scared that the engines were about to explode,” she said.

“The pilot tried his best to make an emergency landing. If he had managed it, then we could have rescued some of the passengers.”

Police had initially said five Japanese, two Italians and a Briton were killed in the crash but later corrected the information, which had been given in error by an officer at the crash site.

Local television channels showed several hundred soldiers and police officers picking through the smouldering wreckage of the aircraft, which was a Dornier Fairchild 228.

A number of badly burned bodies were laid in a line a few metres from the craft’s shattered fuselage, as a large crowd of shocked bystanders looked on.

Autumn is the peak climbing season in Nepal, which has eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest.

At least eight people were killed in an avalanche on Mount Mansalu in northwest Nepal on Sunday, with the search for a further three missing climbers given up on Thursday.

The plane accident is the sixth fatal air crash in Nepal in less than two years, with 76 lives lost in that period before Friday, raising fresh questions about the safety record of the country’s numerous small airlines.

The country has a poor road network and large numbers of tourists, pilgrims and professional climbers often rely on Nepal’s 16 domestic airlines and 49 airports to reach remote areas.

Aircraft and pilots often have to contend with bad weather and difficult landing strips in the Himalayan nation.

In May, 15 people were killed when a small Agni Air plane taking tourists to a treacherous high-altitude airport near Nepal’s Annapurna mountain region ploughed into the ground.

In September last year a small plane taking tourists on a sightseeing trip around Everest crashed into a hillside near the Nepalese Kathmandu, also killing all 19 people on board.

The Buddha Air Beechcraft plane, carrying 10 Indians, two Americans, one Japanese citizen and three local passengers, came down in heavy rain and fog at Godavari, about 10 kilometres from the capital.

Inexperienced pilots, poor management and unenforced rules are seen as some of the causes of the frequent air crashes in Nepal. There have been six deadly accidents in just over two years.

Here is a chronology:

• September 28, 2012: A plane flying 19 people towards Mount Everest comes down in flames on the outskirts of the Nepalese capital Friday, killing everyone on board including seven Britons and five Chinese, police said.
• May 14, 2012: At least 15 people die when an Agni Air plane carrying Indian pilgrims crashes near the treacherous high-altitude airport of Jomsom in northern Nepal, while six make a miraculous escape.
• October 18, 2011: All six people on board die when a military plane crashes in a hunting reserve after taking off from Nepalgunj city in southwestern Nepal. The plane was transporting a critically ill soldier back to Kathmandu.
• September 25, 2011: A small plane taking tourists on a sightseeing trip around Mount Everest crashes into a hillside near Kathmandu, killing all 19 people on board.
• December 15, 2010: All 22 passengers and crew on board a passenger plane that crashes in eastern Nepal are killed. Most of victims are pilgrims from Bhutan, one US citizen is also among the dead.
• August 24, 2010: A small Agni Air plane crashes in bad weather near Kathmandu, killing all 14 people on board including four Americans, a Japanese and a British national.