Death count has reached to 49 after a Bombardier Q400, Dash 8 aircraft of US-Bangla Airways, Flight number UBG 211 crashed at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) at 2:20 PM NST near the fire side of Runway 02 during landing today. The airport remained out of operation for 3 hours after the crash.
TIA said there were 37 males, 27 females and two child on-board the aircraft out of which 33 were Nepali passengers.
The injured passengers were transported to the nearest hospitals; KMC at Sinamangal and Civil Hospital at New Baneshwor.
As per the information from General Manager of TIA, the Q400 aircraft approached the runway 20 with misalignment and was close to the ATC tower. The aircraft if crashed near the terminal or parking bay could have produced a huge destruction, he added.
ATC from TIA instructed US Bangla pilots to land at Runway 02 however, the pilot requested clearance for Runway 20 and then maneuvered their aircraft towards Runway 20.
Then unusual thing happened as the pilots of US Bangla began holding in the sky with minimum of 2 rounds at the north-east side. ATC immediately asked if there was any problem and the pilot answered that their flight was ‘OK’ and they were on their way to land.
The aircraft was showing unusual behavior and approached runway with incorrect alignment. Observing it, ATC informed pilots about their inappropriate and unsafe approach but there was no any response. With these complications, the pilots came and landed but unfortunately, the aircraft crashed after it became uncontrollable and veered off the runway ending in huge flames.
This is just the preliminary information from the TIA officials as per the details from ATC and witnesses which can’t be referred for pointing out the mistakes until and unless the detail investigation report comes out.
The black box of the aircraft has already been recovered and the investigation process will be initiated shortly.
