At least 18 people were killed Wednesday when a small plane exploded after skidding off the runway during take-off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, local officials confirmed.
The plane, carrying two crew members and 17 technicians, was going for regular maintenance to Nepal's new Pokhara airport, which opened in January last year and is equipped with aircraft maintenance hangars, they said.
"Shortly after takeoff ... the aircraft veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway," the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement.
The crash once again focused attention on the poor air safety record of the impoverished, landlocked Himalayan nation that is wedged between India and China and is heavily dependent upon air connectivity due to its limited road network.
Nearly 350 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes in the country since 2000.
Most recently, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti Airlines crash in January 2023 that was later attributed to the pilots mistakenly cutting off power.
Nepal's Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli visited the crash site and asked people to "be patient" in a social media post, without elaborating. An emergency cabinet meeting was called to form a panel to probe the crash, a government spokesman said.
Eighteen of those on board the crashed 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft, with the registration 9N-AME, were Nepali citizens while one engineer was from Yemen, Saurya said.
"Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital," said Tej Bahadur Poudyal, the spokesman for Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.
Television visuals showed firefighters trying to put out the blaze and thick black smoke rising into the sky. Images also showed the plane flying a little above the runway and then tilting to its right before it crashed.
Other visuals showed rescue workers examining the charred remains of the plane, strewn in lush green fields, and bodies being carried to ambulances on stretchers as residents looked on.
"The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday ... It is unclear why it crashed," said Mukesh Khanal, marketing head of Saurya Airlines.
Kathmandu airport was closed temporarily following the crash but reopened within hours, officials said.