By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Mar. 12: A plane from the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka crash landed at the Tribhuvan International airport in Nepal’s Kathmandu on Monday. The plane was carrying 71 people on board including the crew although only 17 have been rescued from the wreckage, sources said.
“We are trying to bring the fire under control. Details are awaited. We’re now concentrating on evacuating the passengers,” airport spokesman Birendra Prasad Shrestha told Reuters, adding that the all other flights have been diverted due to the crash and the airport had been shut down.
Charred bodies of passengers from the plane operated by US-Bangla Airlines, was recovered by rescue workers. Many bodies now lie covered with cloth on the tarmac of the airport. The exact death toll is not made public currently.
There are no statements by officials on the crash and the cause of the same is unknown as of now. Amanda Summers, an American who works in Nepal, watched the crash happen from the terrace of her home office. “It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains,” she told news agency AP.
In 1992, a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok crashed while trying to land in Kathmandu. There were no survivors.
