nepal policeA pilot who survived a fatal air crash in Nepal was saved after his cockpit was sheared off by a cargo container, seconds before the rest of the plane burst into flames and crashed.
Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, the sole survivor of the disaster at Kathmandu Airport that killed 18 people, is currently being treated in hospital, but BBC Nepal confirmed he is speaking and able to Telling his family he’s “all right.”
Rescuers told the BBC they had found the injured pilot as flames approached the part of the plane’s cockpit embedded in the cargo container.
“He faced difficulty in breathing as the air shield opened. We broke the window and pulled him out immediately,” said Dambar Bishwakarma, senior superintendent of police of Nepal Police.
He added: “His face was covered in blood when he was rescued, but by the time we took him to hospital he was talking.”
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Minister Badri Pandey described the plane’s sudden right turn before taking off from the airport before crashing into the east side of the runway.
CCTV footage showed the burning plane flying over part of the airport before appearing to crash into a valley on the far side of the airport.
“It hit the container at the edge of the airport… and then it fell further,” Pandey said. “However, the cockpit remained stuck inside the container. That’s how the captain survived.”
“Another part of the plane crashed into a nearby mound and was torn into pieces. The entire area away from the cockpit crash area was on fire and everything was burned,” Mr Pandey said.
A statement released by Nepal’s military said the pilot “was rescued within five minutes of the crash” and was “very frightened but did not lose consciousness.”
A military ambulance then took him to hospital.
He suffered head and face injuries and will soon undergo surgery to treat a broken back, according to hospital medical director Dr. Meena Thapa.
“We have treated injuries in various parts of his body and he is under observation in the neurosurgery ward,” Thapa told BBC News Nepal.
Nepal Prime Minister Sharma visited the hospital on Wednesday evening and met with the pilot’s family.
An investigation is ongoing to determine the cause of the crash.
The director of Tribhuvan International Airport said that initial assessment showed that the plane flew in the wrong direction.
“As soon as the plane takes off, it turns right. [when it] You should turn left,” Mr Niara told BBC Nepali.
Nepal has been criticized for its poor aviation safety record. In January 2023, a Yeti Airlines crash that killed at least 72 people was later attributed to the pilot mistakenly cutting off the power.
This is Nepal’s worst air disaster since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines plane crashed while flying to Kathmandu Airport, killing all 167 people on board.
Saruya Airlines operates flights to five destinations in Nepal with a fleet of three Bombardier CRJ-200 jets, according to the company’s website.
