Top Stories»
14 killed in Makwanpur air crash
KATHMANDU, AUG 24 -
Fourteen persons, including five Nepalis, four Americans, a Japanese, a British national and three crew members, were killed when an Agni Air aircraft crashed in Sikharpur VDC-2 in Makwanpur district on Tuesday morning.
Preliminary investigation revealed that bad weather caused the 9N AHE D-228 (15-seater-Dornier) aircraft to crash at Bastipur.
Airport officials said the accident occurred at around 7:30 am when the aircraft that was headed for Lukla in Solukhumbu district in the northeast diverted to the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu due to bad weather.
The plane had five Nepali passengers and three crew members.
Bimlesh Karna, manager of the Air Traffic Section at the TIA, said the cause of the crash was not known immediately though it appeared bad weather played a part.
“Weather was clear at both the TIA and Lukla airports when the aircraft took off, but after some 15 minutes the pilot reported that the weather went bad mid-way,” he said.
The control room then instructed the aircraft to divert to the South towards the Simara route.
The gateway to Mt. Everest, Lukla had reported bad weather for eight consecutive days. The aircraft was directed to fly 16 nautical miles towards the south. However, after the aircraft reached 8 nautical miles, the pilot again contacted the tower saying that the weather was clear there and that he was making a direct flight to the TIA from that point, Karna said. “Since than, we lost contact with the aircraft,” he added. Binod Giri, Director, Aviation Safety Department, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said the cause of the crash could not be ascertained immediately. “It can either be some mechanical problem or a weather problem,” he said. However, Agni Air’s marketing manager Pramod Pandey said the aircraft that was added to Agni’s fleet four years ago had no technical problem as such.
The government formed a five-member committee led by aviation expert Kumar Prasad Upadhyay to investigate Tuesday’s crash. It has been asked to prepare a report within 65 days.
Posted on: 2010-08-25 08:04
Headlines
Advertisements
