KATHMANDU  –  Eighteen people were killed after a plane crashed and caught fire while it was taking off from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu.

The pilot, who is currently receiving treatment in hospital, is the only survivor of Wednesday’s fatal accident after being rescued from the burning wreckage. The Saurya Airlines test flight was carrying 17 company employees, including technical staff, as well as two crew members. It was bound for the Himalayan tourism hub of Pokhara in the country’s west.

Nepal’s aviation industry has a poor safety record that has been attributed to multiple factors over the years, from unpredictable weather to lax regulations. The flight, which was heading for Pokhara as part of a routine maintenance check, crashed at about 11:15 local time (05:30 GMT), a few minutes after it took off from Tribhuvan International Airport, according to a statement by the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s search and rescue co-ordination centre.

Police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki told BBC Nepali that the pilot sustained injuries to his eyes and forehead, but said his life was not in danger. One man who was inside a nearby shop when the accident occurred said: “There was a very loud noise, it sounded like maybe a truck had overturned on the road. “We ran after we saw [the crash]. The plane then hit the ground and caught fire. We were about to run to the site but then there was an explosion so we ran away again,” he told AFP news agency.

Airport chief Jagannath Niraula told BBC Nepali that the accident “happened as soon as it left the ground, in not even a minute”, though airport authorities have not been able to confirm the cause of the disaster. However, 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. Footage of the incident showed the plane tilting above the runway before crashing into the ground, into flames. It quickly became enveloped in fire and smoke. Photos showed rescue workers making their way through the wreckage, with large parts of the plane completely blackened and charred. Photos of the aftermath also appeared to show parts of the plane inside an air freight container.

Fire engines and ambulances were rushed to the spot after the incident. Seventeen of those who died were Nepali, while one was a Yemeni national, who was working as an engineer. “The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday… It is unclear why it crashed,” said Saurya Airlines marketing head Mukesh Khanal, Reuters news agency reports. Kathmandu’s airport closed temporarily after the crash, but reopened within hours, Reuters said.  (BBC)

Photo: Emergency workers attend scene of Nepal plane crash. (Reuters)  …[+]