Plane carrying 71 people crashes in Nepal

Plane carrying 71 people crashes in Nepal

A Bangladeshi aircraft carrying 67 passengers and four crew on Monday crashed during landing at the airport in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, an airport official said.

The official added that 17 people on board the plane, had been rescued. The state of the other passengers on the flight from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, operated by US-Bangla Airlines, was not clear, Airport spokesman, Birendra Prasad Shrestha said.

“We are trying to bring the fire under control and are concentrating on evacuating the passengers. We await further details,” he said, adding that the airport had been shut down and all other flights, diverted.

Television images showed smoke rising from the crash site.

Mountainous Nepal is notorious for air accidents. Small aircraft often run into trouble at provincial airstrips.

A Thai Airways flight from Bangkok crashed while trying to land in Kathmandu in 1992, killing everyone on board.

US-Bangla Airlines is a unit of the US-Bangla Group, a U.S. Bangladeshi joint venture company.

The Bangladeshi carrier launched operations in July 2014 and operates Bombardier Inc and Boeing aircraft.

Agency Report