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29 March 2024

Plane crashes in Nepal, killing all 19 on board

Published
By Agencies

A plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed while attempting to land in dense fog in Nepal on Sunday, police and eyewitnesses said. A plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed while attempting to land in dense fog in Nepal on Sunday, killing all 19 people on board, officials said, reports according to AP.

Kathmandu Airport officials said there were 16 passengers and a crew of three on board the plane. Reuters report say there was no official word whether there were any survivors. There were 10 Indian and three other foreign tourists, three Nepali passengers and three Nepali crew members.

The Beechcraft-made plane belonging to Buddha Air was carrying 16 foreign tourists and three crew members and crashed in Bisankunarayan village, just a few miles (kilometers) south of the capital, Katmandu.

Police officials said rescuers had reached the crash site, but would not comment on casualties.

An eyewitness, Haribol Poudel, told Avenues Television that it was foggy, and that visibility was very low in the mountainous area.

Rewant Kuwar, an official at the Katmandu Airport rescue office, said the plane had last made contact with the control tower at 7:31 a.m.

The plane had taken the tourists to view Mount Everest and other high peaks and was returning to Katmandu. The "mountain flight" takes tourists over the Everest region, and passengers can view some of the world's highest peaks from the airplane windows.

Kathmandu and its surrounding hills were enveloped in late monsoon clouds early on Sunday.

The last plane crash in Nepal was in December last year, when a Twin Otter aircraft hit the Himalayan foothills of remote east Nepal, killing all 22 people onboard.