 "Nepal plane crash: Are the country’s runways a recipe for disaster?")
Tragedy has hit Nepal again as at least 18 people died after a plane crashed and caught fire while it was taking off from the capital of Kathmandu on Wednesday.
According to officials, a Saurya Airlines aircraft crashed during take-off at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The plane was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to Pokhara city to repair another aircraft when disaster struck.
Images released from the site showed thick smoke billowing from the burning aircraft on the airport runway.
The crash once again highlights the dangers of air travel in Nepal, a country often referred to as one of the riskiest places to fly due to multiple factors including its tricky runways, poor maintenance of planes and the mountainous terrain.
Tragedy at Tribhuvan airport
On Wednesday (July 24), around 11:15 local time, a Saurya Airlines plane crashed a few minutes after it took off from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu. A statement by Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s search and rescue coordination centre said the plane “turned right and crashed on the east side of the runway”.
Airport security chief Arjun Chand Thakuri said that the plane was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to the city of Pokhara for maintenance checks.
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More Shorts“Rescue efforts were started immediately and the situation was brought under control,” the aviation authority said.
However, the crash has led to the deaths of 18 people with only the pilot, Manish Shankya, surviving. He was rushed to Kathmandu Medical College hospital with eye injuries, but his condition isn’t life-threatening, said a doctor at the hospital, as per a Sky News report.
According to eyewitnesses quoted by The Kathmandu Post, the plane flipped after the wing-tip hit the ground while taking off. They said that the plane immediately caught fire and plunged into a gorge on the eastern side of the runway.
Images of the aftermath shared by Nepal’s military showed the plane’s fuselage split apart and burnt to a husk.
It is not year clear what caused the crash. It is rainy season in Kathmandu but it was not raining at the time of the crash. However, visibility was low across the capital.
Today’s crash adds to Nepal’s long, tragic history of deadly air crashes. Before Wednesday’s crash, nearly 360 people have died in the country in 19 air crashes since 2000. The last deadly crash in Nepal had occurred in January 2023 when a twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft carrying 72 people, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, crashed in Pokhara, killing all on board.
Spotlight on Tribhuvan’s table-top runway
Today’s crash has put a spotlight on the Tribhuvan airport’s runway, which is a table-top runway. But what is a table-top runway and are there risks to landing there?
As the name suggests, it is an airport located and built on top of a plateau or hilly surface, with one or both ends of the runway overlooking a drop. Simple Flying explains that these types of runways are constructed by chopping off the top of a peak and forming it into a plateau, or carving out the side of a mountain. They are impressive feats of engineering and enable longer runways for long-range jet aircraft (otherwise they could only take small regional aircraft).
However, these types of runways have dangerous starts and ends. There is little room for error, and pilots need excellent training to land on them.
In the past, table-top runways across the world have seen crashes. For instance, on August 7, 2020, an Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode skidded off the table-top runway and crashed below, killing 19 passengers and two pilots. However, 169 others survived.
Nepal’s Tenzing-Hillary airport in Solukhumbu, which also has a table-top runway, witnessed a disaster in May 2017 when a cargo plane crashed.
Another horrific disaster involving table-top runways happened at home, India, in May 2010 when Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangaluru crashed on landing at and 158 passengers, including six crew members, were killed.
Portugal’s Madeira airport, which also has a table-top runway, also witnessed a crash in 1977 when an Air Portugal Flight 425 overshot, killing 131 people.
**Also read: What makes Nepal’s skies so dangerous?**Nepal — home to tricky runways
And if the runway at Tribhuvan is tricky, then landing at Lukla’s Tenzing Hillary Airport is like cheating death. In fact, the airport has earned the title of being the most dangerous airport in the world.
Known as the gateway to Mount Everest, this airport’s runway is extremely short at just 1,729 feet long. Runways at many of the world’s international airports are more than 10,000 feet long. As the runway is so short, it has a 12 per cent uphill incline to assist planes in slowing down as they land.
The location of the runway also means that there are no go-around procedures. This means once a pilot has commenced an approach, they are committed to landing. Additionally, there are no radar or navigation systems at the airport, so pilots are fully dependent on what they can see from the cockpit.
Nepal’s poor aviation safety record
The Himalayan kingdom has a poor safety record when it comes to the aviation sector. But it’s not just the tricky runways, mountainous terrain and severe weather to blame.
The country relies on ageing airplanes for its domestic flights. Many of these aircraft don’t have the necessary modern equipment such as radar and or GPS technology that can help mitigate problems with visibility or weather. In fact, all airline carriers from Nepal have been banned from the European Union skies since 2013 due to safety concerns.
Another issue is the aviation body itself. The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) is both the service provider and regulator in Nepal. This has engendered a conflict of interest, especially when it comes to safety regulations.
However, despite the many issues, Nepal continues to see a boom in flying owing to the many tourists that visit the Himalayan kingdom.
With inputs from agencies
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