(Bloomberg) -- A Saurya Airlines flight crashed during takeoff from Kathmandu Airport in Nepal, killing 18 people, according to local police.
The 18 people were among 19 airline employees on board, with the plane heading to Pokhara for maintenance, the Nepalese Police said in a post on X. One of the passengers on the flight was from Yemen with the rest from Nepal.
The crash happened after the tip of one of the plane’s wings hit the ground during takeoff at Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal’s capital, according to the Kathmandu Post.
The crash occurred at 11:11 a.m. local time, according to Nepal’s aviation authority. It is unclear if the weather contributed to the accident.
This was the deadliest crash in Nepal after 68 passengers and four crew on Yeti Airlines Flight 691 were killed in January last year.
The aircraft involved in Wednesday’s accident was a Mitsubishi CRJ-200 aircraft, with a capacity for 50 passengers. Saurya only has two aircraft in its fleet, according to Flightradar24 data.
Nepal is one of the riskiest countries for flying, given the its high altitude and mountainous terrain. Its aviation authority highlighted “runway excursion” as one of the key operation safety risks in its Aviation Safety Report last year.
--With assistance from Danny Lee and Shikhar Gupta.
(Updated with latest information throughout.)
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