How pilot survived Nepal plane crash that killed everyone else onboard

The pilot of a Saurya Airlines plane that crashed at Kathmandu airport in Nepal on Wednesday survived likely because the cockpit got stuck on a container, civil aviation minister Badri Pandey said.

The small aircraft struck a container at the edge of the Tribhuvan International Airport and the cockpit was found lodged inside it.

Captain Manish Ratna Shakya was rescued from the cockpit within five minutes of the crash. He suffered head and facial injuries and is expected to undergo surgery for broken bones in his back.

“The pilot survived. He is in a stable condition,” Nepal police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki said. “It was a miracle.”

Senior police superintendent Dambar Bishwakarma told the BBC the pilot was facing difficulty breathing when he was found.

“We broke the window and immediately pulled him out,” he said. “He had blood all over his face when he was rescued, but we took him to the hospital in a condition where he could speak.”

The CRJ 200 plane bound for Pokhara was carrying 19 people, mostly crew and technical staff, but no paying passengers, when the crash occurred just after 11am local time. The pilot was the sole survivor of the crash.

According to Reuters the aircraft was transporting the technicians to Pokhara, where another plane was awaiting repairs. It flipped during takeoff, struck the ground with its wing tip and caught fire before crashing into a gorge.

“That was an unusual sound. It was a big bang like a bomb,” an eyewitness told The Kathmandu Post.

“Shortly after takeoff from runway 2, the aircraft veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said.

Mr Pandey said the fuselage split apart, struck the slope of the tabletop airport and bounced 50 metres away before finally coming to rest on the muddy ground. “The other part of the plane crashed into a nearby mound and it tore into pieces,” he said.

The cause of the crash isn’t clear yet. But experts who reviewed footage of the incident suggested it may have been caused by “climb failure”, meaning the plane could not gain altitude as it tried to take off, according to The Indian Express.

Possible reasons for “climb failure” include engine failure, improper weight assessment during pre-flight planning, technical issues, or pilot error.

Weather conditions on Wednesday morning were typical for the monsoon season, with low visibility but no rain.

Dirga Bahadur Khadka, granduncle of co-pilot Sushant Katwal, who was killed in the crash, blamed the airline. “We suspect that the company put pressure on the pilots into flying the plane,” he was quoted as saying by The Kathmandu Post.

“Otherwise, no one would like to fly a plane with technical problems. A question also arises about the civil aviation authority, the aviation sector regulator. How could it allow planes with technical problems to fly?”

Saurya Airlines has reportedly been financially troubled for years, worsened by the Covid pandemic. Last year, it proposed switching to ATR-72 aircraft and promised to uphold safety standards until the new planes arrived. However, the airline couldn’t secure the necessary investment for fleet replacement.

An investigation will determine the exact cause of the crash.

The Independent has reached out to the airline for comment.

Nepal has a troubled aviation history due to its mountainous terrain and rapidly changing weather conditions.

The latest crash was the 105th since the country started operating flights in the 1950s, The Kathmandu Post quoted the civil aviation agency as saying.

The Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives has recorded 69 aviation accidents in the Himalayan country since 1946, causing around 900 fatalities.

It has been a concern in Nepal that many of its aircraft are ageing and lack standard equipment and modern maintenance. Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, said it did not track the crashed Saurya Airlines flight because the aircraft “was not equipped with a modern ADS-B transponder”.

In 2013, the European Union banned all Nepalese aircraft from entering its airspace due to the South Asian country’s inadequate aviation safety regulations and enforcement. It cited “safety information from various sources and a hearing both with Nepalese aviation authorities as well as with a number of Nepalese carriers” to justify the blanket prohibition.

In December last year, the European Commission decided to keep the ban due to ongoing safety concerns.

It recognised the Nepalese Civil Aviation Authority’s work to improve safety oversight but said the agency’s capacity to meet international standards remained questionable.

In August 2022, the UN aviation watchdog, International Civil Aviation Organisation, asked Nepal to split its Civil Aviation Authority into separate regulatory and operational entities.

The separation is a crucial reform agenda that has reportedly been pending for the past decade and a half.

In July 2023, before a planned EU safety audit, Nepal’s tourism ministry submitted draft bills to create an independent aviation regulator in a bid to have the aviation ban lifted. They were reportedly halted by the government.

Marco Chan, a senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University’s School of Aviation and Security, said the Tribhuvan International Airport faces challenges due to its high elevation of 4,390 feet and mountainous terrain.

“It is important to note that the minimum safe altitude within 25 nautical miles of the airport’s navigation aid is 21,100 feet which affects the carefully designed departure and arrival routes that navigate around the terrain. These factors lead to the airport being classified as a category C airport, which means pilots require additional qualifications and training to operate flights safely in and out of the airport,” he said in a statement shared with The Independent.

“In this scenario, ‘high elevation’ means that the airport is in an area with lower air density. As a result, aircraft will generally require a higher speed for takeoff, which may necessitate a longer takeoff distance. Additionally, the engine power will be more limited than at sea level.”

Mr Chan, however, noted the recent crash could have resulted from engine failure or stall, possibly caused by incorrect flap settings.