[NomadSK]

The Saurya Airlines plane crashed during take-off on a test flight from Nepal's capital of Kathmandu to Pokhara.

The pilot of the plane survived the crash and has been taken to to the Kathmandu Medical College Hospital for treatment.

Random video footage is also available.

But why 19 people were there on a test flight ?

Video Link

[StarrySky]

Terrible accident and sad loss of life.

There are two videos showing the accident on the NDTV website itself, but they seem to show two different accidents.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by NomadSK

T

But why 19 people were there on a test flight ?

[

According to the Aviation Herald it had 17 technicians onboard on the way to do maintenance on another place at the destination airport.
.

Jeroen

[skanchan95]

It's a miracle that the Captain survived, considering how bad the crash was!

[itwasntme]

Originally Posted by skanchan95

It's a miracle that the Captain survived, considering how bad the crash was!

Agree, was really lucky as (it seems) the cockpit section broke off wholly and spun away from the rest of the burning fuselage.

[amitjha086]

I'm a Nepalese and have been following the news. The crash occurred some 8km from where I live.Kathmandu is a small metropolitan anyway.
The plane is a Bombardier and has been with Saurya airlines for some 7 years. Most of the aircrafts in Nepal are multiple hands old.
The plane was planned to be taken to the hangar in Pokhara where it was to undergo complete checkup (called C check). It had nearly 100 hours of flying time left before C check.
Now, to the question, why so many people in the aircraft that was taken for maintenance, it's the callous approach to safety. Just like "chalta hai" attitude.
All the passengers where staffs of the airlines barring two, a woman and a child who were family of one of the staffs. Pokhara is a tourist city and everyone just hopped in a plane that was supposed only to have pilots. Even the airport security system neglected seating passengers in such a plane. Probably, they thought it's their plane, they'll manage.
There are strict rules in Nepal but rarely the rules are implemented for those with power and money.

[skanchan95]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Agree, was really lucky as (it seems) the cockpit section broke off wholly and spun away from the rest of the burning fuselage.

Yes, it apparently broke off after hitting a container that had a AS.350 helicopter tail section inside it.

Pilot survived Nepal crash after cockpit split from plane

Tom Bennett and Ashok Dahal - in London and Kathmandu
Thu, July 25, 2024 at 2:37 a.m. IST

The pilot who survived a deadly plane crash in Nepal was saved after his cockpit was sheared off by a freight container seconds before the rest of the aircraft crashed in flames.


Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, the sole survivor of the disaster that killed 18 people at Kathmandu airport, is being treated in hospital but BBC Nepali has confirmed he is talking and able to tell family members he was “all good”.

Rescuers told the BBC that they had reached the stricken pilot as flames neared the cockpit section of the aircraft embedded in the container.

"He was facing difficulty to breathe as the air shield was open. We broke the window and immediately pulled him out,” Senior Superintendent of Nepal Police Dambar Bishwakarma 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,” he added.

Nepal's civil aviation minister Badri Pandey described how the aircraft had suddenly turned right as it took off from the airport, before crashing into the east side of the runway.

CCTV footage shows the aircraft in flames careering across part of the airport before part of it appears to fall into a valley at the far edge of the site.

"It hit the container on the edge of the airport... then, it fell further below," Mr Pandey said. "The cockpit, however, remained stuck inside the container. This is how the captain survived.”


The other part of the plane crashed into a nearby mound and it tore into pieces. The entire area away from the region where the cockpit fell down caught fire and everything was burnt,” Mr Pandey said.

The pilot was "rescued within five minutes of the crash" and "was very scared but had not lost consciousness at that time", according to a statement released by the Nepali army.
An army ambulance then took him to hospital.

According to the hospital's medical director, Dr. Meena Thapa, he suffered injuries to his head and face and will soon undergo surgery to treat broken bones in his back.

"We have treated injuries on various parts of his body," Thapa told BBC News Nepali, "He is under observation in the neuro surgery ward."

On Wednesday evening, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma visited the hospital, where he met members of the pilot's family.

Investigations are underway to determine the cause of the crash.

The head of Tribhuvan International Airport said that an initial assessment showed that the plane had flown in the wrong direction.

As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left," Mr Niraula told BBC Nepali.

Nepal has been criticised for its poor air safety record. In January 2023, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti Airlines crash that was later attributed to its pilots mistakenly cutting the power.

It was the deadliest air crash in Nepal since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu Airport.

Saruya Airlines operates flights to five destinations within Nepal, with a fleet of three Bombardier CRJ-200 jets, according to the company’s website.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by amitjha086

The plane was planned to be taken to the hangar in Pokhara where it was to undergo complete checkup (called C check). It had nearly 100 hours of flying time left before C check.
Now, to the question, why so many people in the aircraft that was taken for maintenance, it's the callous approach to safety.

Sorry, but if a plane has 100 hours of flying left to its C-check and the normal maintenance and pre-flight inspection have been done, it should be perfectly safe to take passengers. Commercial planes do it all the time.

There are procedures for repositioning aeroplanes that have maintenance and or technical issues. In some cases, they might not be allowed to take passengers. I haven't seen or read anything that suggests there was a problem with this plane. It was being repositioned for maintenance and they brought maintenance staff along.

Take your own car maintenance analogy. Your car is no less safe 100 km before its service. Unless it wasn't maintained properly in the first place, in which case it would have been and still is unsafe all the time.

By far the best website to keep track of incidents and ongoing investigations is the Aviation Herald. As more information becomes available they will update the relevant incident:

https://avherald.com/h?article=51b861c3&opt=0

Jeroen

[RM Motorsports]

This is a developing story and may change over time. Actual cause will only be determined after a detailed investigation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_KsPQQ9CtQ

[amitjha086]

Originally Posted by Jeroen

Sorry, but if a plane has 100 hours of flying left to its C-check and the normal maintenance and pre-flight inspection have been done, it should be perfectly safe to take passengers. Commercial planes do it all the time.

By far the best website to keep track of incidents and ongoing investigations is the Aviation Herald. As more information becomes available they will update the relevant incident:

https://avherald.com/h?article=51b861c3&opt=0

Jeroen

The pilot is recovering fast. He is still admitted in the hospital and is scheduled for some surgery on his spine. I wonder why there has been no statement from pilot made available yet.

By the way, the final audio clip from Yeti Airlines that crashed in Pokhara last year got surfaced on internet just today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtsR3A0hPMc

This is in Nepali language though but you will have an idea about what might have went wrong.

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by amitjha086

. I wonder why there has been no statement from pilot made available yet.
.

On its own there is very little use of the pilots’ statement. We often think that drivers who have a crash or someone who sees a crash will be telling an almost perfect observation of what happened.

Sadly this is not true. I served on various industrial investigation board and to that effect I got some formal training as well. Eye witness, operators on duty, pilots, captain of a ship, we were taught never to rely on their testimony unless it could be corroborated with other facts.

It’s not that these people lie intentional. It’s just how the human mind works. We make for terrible eye witnesses! Professionals are not necessarily better than laymen either! They will bring a lot of detail into it, but not necessary what has happened.

So that why it is so important in airplane crashes to get the data recorders (black boxes). They are the unbiased and truthful recorder of what happened. There are cases of aircraft accidents where the captain and co-pilot both had different stories as to what happened, who did what, sequence of events to what the voice and data recorder showed. What they claimed to have said and what the recorder said did not even match.

That’s why I’m always very reluctant to take anybodies accident story as to the true story what happened.

Same here, his story might be near perfect, but unless you can verify against voice and data recorder, don’t draw any conclusion. So no statements.

I can name a few accidents where very quickly the airline involved came with statements about how heroic the crew acted. Well, turned out in a few cases it was the exact opposite. So if anything early statement from airline are a bit of a red flag to me!

Jeroen

[SuperGirl_Dad]

Originally Posted by amitjha086

I wonder why there has been no statement from pilot made available yet.

Originally Posted by Jeroen

On its own there is very little use of the pilots’ statement. We often think that drivers who have a crash or someone who sees a crash will be telling an almost perfect observation of what happened.

It’s not that these people lie intentional. It’s just how the human mind works. We make for terrible eye witnesses! Professionals are not necessarily better than laymen either! They will bring a lot of detail into it, but not necessary what has happened.

Very true - lack of situational awareness and unintentional behavior has been observed in pilots, given the nature of their work (uneven timings, lack of horizon (vertigo), etc). One of the most famous episode of this is China Airlines 006 plummet. Luckily, the pilots had enough time to react to the situation and bring things under control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi-A1TGpAfc

[missedapproach]

Originally Posted by amitjha086

By the way, the final audio clip from Yeti Airlines that crashed in Pokhara last year got surfaced on internet just today.

Too much chatter in the most important phase of flight(couldn't make it but PIC was teaching something to PM). Seems they were still running landing checklist even after crossing 1000ft, stall warning before crashing. The final report will put blame on pilots.