TEMPO.CO, Kathmandu - At least 18 people were killed when a regional passenger plane belonging to Nepal's Saurya Airlines crashed and caught fire while taking off from the capital Kathmandu on Wednesday, July 24, officials said.

The plane, carrying two crew members and 17 technicians, was going for regular maintenance to Nepal's new Pokhara airport, which opened last January and is equipped with aircraft maintenance hangars, they said.

"Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital," said Tej Bahadur Poudyal, the spokesman for Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.

Television visuals showed firefighters trying to put out the blaze and thick black smoke rising into the sky. They also showed the plane flying a little above the runway and then tilting before it crashed.

Other visuals showed rescue workers rummaging through the charred remains of the plane, strewn in lush green fields. Bodies were carried to ambulances on stretchers as residents looked on, the television showed.

Officials said the airport was closed temporarily.

A Saurya Airlines official said the plane was a 50-seater CRJ200 aircraft.

According to Flight Radar 24 flight tracking, Saurya currently operates two CRJ-200 regional jets, a program owned by Canada's Bombardier but bought by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2020.

Saurya says it has another CRJ200 in its fleet, but it has not flown for a long time.

Bombardier referred questions about the incident to Canada-based MHI RJ Aviation Group (MHIRJ), which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Established in 2014, Saurya says on its website that it has introduced the "jet experience" on Nepal's domestic routes and that it flies to five destinations.

Nepal has been criticized for a poor air safety record, and nearly 350 people have died in helicopter or plane crashes in the Himalayan country since 2000.

The deadliest incident occurred in 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus crashed into a hillside while approaching Kathmandu, killing 167 people.

Most recently, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti airlines crash in January 2023 that was later attributed to the pilots mistakenly cutting off power.

REUTERS

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