Dhaka, 12 March – At least fifty people were killed after an aircraft of US-Bangla Airlines crashed and burst into flames near Kathmandu airport Monday in the biggest ever aviation disaster involving a Bangladeshi passenger aircraft.
Seventeen people were reportedly taking treatment in Nepali hospitals after they got severely injured. A Youtube video revealing the conversation between the pilot of the US-Bangla flight BS-211 and the control tower of Katmundu’s Tribhubon International Airport (TIA) hinted a miscommunication between them.
Raj Kumar Chhetri, general manager at TIA, told the news agencies that the aircraft skidded off the runaway after landing in the “wrong direction against the order of the control room”.
“The control room had given permission to land from the southern end. But it landed from the northern side after making few rounds in the sky,” he said.
Meanwhile, Imran Asif, CEO of US-Bangla Airlines, at a press briefing said they are also suspecting a miscommunication between the pilot and the control tower at the airport.
He said that the pilot of the aircraft, Abid Sultan, is injured and is getting treatment at a Katmundu hospital.
Earlier, Kamrul Hasan, General Manager of the US-Bangla Airlines, told the media that there were 71 people on board—67 passengers, one pilot, one co-pilot and two cabin crew.
“As of this point, we can’t confirm how many Bangladeshis have survived the crash,” said Hasan in the briefing.
The airline, however, opened a hotline and provided official update in every hour.
Meanwhile, agencies reporting from the sport said that the aircraft landed east of the airport’s lone runway and skidded into a nearby football field.
Rescuers had to cut apart the mangled and burned wreckage of the upturned aircraft to pull people out, some of whom were buried under the scattered debris.
Eyewitnesses said the plane crashed as it made a second approach towards the airport, bursting into flames after coming to a halt in a football pitch next to the runway.
“It should have come straight but it went in the other direction,” said airport cleaner Sushil Chaudhary, who saw the crash. “I was worried it would hit another aircraft, but the pilot pulled the plane up. But then it crashed towards the field.”
The US-Bangla plane that crashed on Monday was a Canadian-made Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprop, Mahbubur Rahman of Bangladesh’s civil aviation ministry told AFP. Other people said the aircraft was 17 years old.
“There might be technical problems on the aircraft. But it has to be probed before making a final statement,” Rahman told AFP.
The aircraft that went down was 17 years old, data from tracking website Flightradar24.comshowed.
It descended to an airport altitude of 4,400 feet (1,341 m) and then climbed to 6,600 feet (2,012 m) before crashing about two minutes later, the website said.
Kathmandu airport briefly closed after the accident, forcing inbound flights to divert, but it has since reopened. It is Nepal’s only international airport and experts say the surrounding Himalayan landscape makes it testing for pilots coming onto land.
“The landing at Kathmandu because of the terrain is a little challenging,” said Gabriele Ascenzo, a Canadian pilot who runs aviation safety courses in Nepal. Depending on the direction of approach, pilots have to fly over high terrain before making a steep descent towards the airport, Ascenzo added.
The accident is the deadliest in Nepal since September 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed. Just two months earlier, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
Nepal’s poor air safety record is largely blamed on inadequate maintenance, inexperienced pilots and substandard management, and its planes are banned from flying in European airspace, reported AP.
Accidents are common, hitting the impoverished country’s vital tourism industry. In early 2016, a Twin Otter turboprop aircraft slammed into a mountainside in Nepal killing all 23 people on board. Two days later, two pilots were killed when a small passenger plane crash-landed in the country’s hilly Midwest, said the AP report.
US-Bangla Airlines is a private carrier that launched in July 2014 with the motto “Fly Fast Fly Safe”, according to its website. The Dhaka-based airline made its first international flight in May 2016 to Kathmandu, and has since expanded with routes to South Asia, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
In 2015 one of its planes overshot the runway on landing at Saidpur in northwest Bangladesh. There were no reports of injuries. – Staff Reporter
List of passengers
UNB adds: The US-Bangla Airlines flight which crashed at Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal was carrying 67 passengers – 32 from Bangladesh, 33 from Nepal and one each from China and the Maldives, according to sources at the airlines.
The Bangladeshi nationals are Faisal Ahmed, Shahreen Ahmed, Yakub Ali, Alifuzzaman, Almun Nahar Annie, Bilkis Ara ,Begum Hurun Nahar Bilqis Banu, Akhtara Begum, Md Shahin Bepari, Nazia Afrin Chowdhury, Md Rezwanul Haque, Md Rakibul Hasan, Mehedi Hasan, Emrana Kabir Hashi, Md Kabir Hossain, Sanzida Haque, Md Hasan Imam, Mohammad Nazrul Islam, Akhi Moni, Meenhaz Bin Nasir, FH Priok, Md Matiur Rahman, SM Mahmudur Rahman, Tahira Tanvin Shashi Reza, Pias Roy, Sheikh Rashed Rubayet, Umme Salma, Md Nuruz Zaman, Md Rafiquz Zaman, Sayeeda Kamrunnahar Swarna, CHD Tamarra Prionmoyee and CHD Aniruddha Zaman.
Of them, Faisal is a staff reporter of private television channel Boishaki, confirmed its head of news AshokeChowdhury.
Of the 33 Nepalese citizens, 13 are students of Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College Hospital in Sylhet.
The 19th batch students of the medical college are Sanjay Poudel, SanjayaMaharjan, NeegaMaharjan, AnjilaShrestha, PurnimaLohani, ShwetaThapa, MeeliMaharjan, SarunaShrestha, AlginaBaral, CharuBaral, Samira Byanjankar, AshnaShakya and PrincyDhami.
They were going to their homeland on a two-month vacation on completion of their MBBS final examination, Fazlur Rahman, assistant director of Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College Hospital told UNB.
The rest nationals of the Himalayan country are Sila Bajgain, Sobindra Singh Bohara, Gyani Kumari Gurung, ShreyaJha, Prasanna Pandey, Krishna Kumar Sahani, DayaramTamrakar, Bal Krishna Thapa, Abadhesh Kumar Yadav, Prabin Chitrakar, Sajana Devkota, Dinesh Humagain, Keshav Pandey, Binod Raj Paudyal, Hari Shankar Poudel, Ashish Ranjit, Sanam Shakya, Hari Prasad Subedi, Kishore Tripathi and Basanta Bohora.
The Maldivian national is Rizana Abdulla while the Chinese is Zhang Ming.
There were four crewmembers on board, but their nationalities were not provided.
At least 19 people on board the ill-fated US Bangla flight BS-211 have survived and are getting treatment in different hospitals in Kathmandu in Nepal.
Chief Executive Officer of US Bangla Airlines Imran Asif confirmed this while briefing reporters at office at 77 Suhrawardy Avenue at Baridhara in the city last night.
According to him, the survivors are Emrana Kabir Hashi, Prinoy Dhami, Samira Byajankar, Kabir Hossain, Mehedi Hasan, Rezwana Abdullah, Shwarna Saiyeda Kamrunnahar, Shahreen Ahmed, Md Shahin Bepary, Kishore Tripathi, Hari Prasad Subedi, Dayaram Tamrakar, Keshan Pandey, Basanta Bohora, Ashish Ranjit, Bindo Raj Paudual, Rezanul Haque, Sanam Shakya and Dinesh Magain.
The US Bangla CEC said a team of the airlines along with a delegation from Ministry of Civil Aviation would leave Dhaka for Kathmandu to look after the incident and casualties.
He said they would also take relatives of the victims, if any of them are interested, to Nepal to enquire about their relatives.
Imran told reporters that at least eight passengers of the ill-fated flight are killed but they are yet to identify as to how many Bangladeshi nationals are among the victims.
He said Abed Sultan, pilot of the flight survived but they could not trace co-pilot Pritula, crew Khaza and Nabila.
