19 die in latest Nepal air crash, safety fears mount

SIXTEEN passengers and three crew members on board a Dornier aircraft bound for Lukla in the Mt Everest area were killed Friday as the plane crash-landed on the bank of a river barely two minutes after taking off from the Kathmandu airport.

Civil aviation department officials said the accident involving the Sita Air plane had been caused by a bird-hit. There were seven Britons, five Chinese and seven Nepalis including the crew on board the plane which took off around 6.30 am and came down on the bank of the Manohara river barely 3 km away and caught fire.

"Friday's accident was caused by bird-hit and the pilot made all attempts for a safe landing," Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, told reporters. The air traffic control had warned the pilot that an "unusual manoeuvering" of the aircraft had been noticed at the time of take-off. An apparent attempt to turn back at a low height is being seen as the possible cause.

Lukla is the nearest airport to the Mt Everest base camp and is popular among Western tourists who come to Nepal to trek. This is the second plane accident in Nepal in four months. Fifteen people, including 11 Indians, were killed in May when their plane crashed into a hill in Jomsom near the Nepal-Tibet border.

There is growing concern about Nepal's poor aviation safety record, particularly among foreign tourists, and experts blame this on the Himalayan nation's poor regulatory systems.

Nepal's 63-year-old civil aviation sector has recorded 730 deaths but major accidents involving fatalities have taken place over the last 46 years involving about 74 crashes. Friday's crash was the third major accident in 12 months and the eighth in two years.

But officials say that the number of accidents in proportion to the increase in the volume of services and number of aircraft in operation is not alarming. They, however, admit that regulatory mechanisms and enforcement of safety measures are generally left to the airlines - mostly private - with no system of accountability in place. The government does not allow import of aircraft that are older than 15 years but those already in operation have been around for longer. The International Civil Aviation Organisation had in its 2010 annual report warned Nepal that its skies were not safe going by the number of accidents.

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