Eighteen people died after a Saurya Airlines plane, 9N-AME (CRJ 200), crashed while taking off at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Nepal's Kathmandu. Nineteen people were aboard the Pokhara-bound plane.

The pilot of the plane, 37-year-old Manish Shakya, was rescued from the wreckage and taken to a nearby hospital in Sinamangal for treatment.

The plane was carrying technical staff of the airline, Gyanendra Bhul, information officer at the TIA, told The Himalayan. The aircraft was being taken to Pokhara Regional Airport for maintenance.

After the crash, smoke was seen billowing from the plane. Police personnel and firefighters have been deployed to the site for rescue operations.

Eyewitnesses said the plane was taking off from the southern end of the runway when it suddenly flipped with the wing tip hitting the ground, The Kathmandu Post reported. The aircraft, which caught fire immediately, then plunged into a gorge on the eastern side of the runway.

The airline was acquired by India's Kuber Group in 2019 for 630 million Nepali rupees. In 2021, there were reports that the airline would rebrand itself as Kuber Airlines, but it was put on hold.

The Kathmandu airport halted all flights of Saurya Airlines on December 6, 2018, after the carrier failed to pay its debts. It was allowed to resume operations on March 8, 2019, after it paid a part of the $355,000 debt it owed to the airport, a report said.

Source: India Today