A commercial plane carrying over 70 people crashed near a Kathmandu airport in Nepal on Monday morning. At least 40 people are confirmed dead (25 upon impact) with over 20 more injured, according to the New York Times. Witnesses also report that the plane appeared to be in distress — noticeably wobbling in midair — while approaching Tribhuvan International Airport. As the plane descended toward the runway, the aircraft’s tail crashed first into the ground, and the back of the plane burst into flames. As a nearby driver told the Times, “It sounded like a bomb went off.”
The accident occurred near the completion of US-Bangla Airlines Flight 211, which departed from Dhaka, Bangladesh and came in for landing from the wrong direction, possibly in another sign of impending trouble. Via CNN:
“The plane had permission to land from the southern side of the runway but they instead landed from the northern side. Authorities do not know why they did not land from the southern side,” Raj Kumar Chhetri, General Manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, told CNN.
According to Flightradar24, the plane was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, which the company describes as “the world’s most modern turboprop.”
67 passengers and 4 crew members were aboard Flight 211. An investigation has been launched into the crash, which follows weeks after back-to-back, high-casualty commercial crashes in both Tehran, Iran and Moscow, Russia.
(Via New York Times & CNN)