Katmandu: A plane carrying tourists to view Mount Everest crashed while attempting to land in dense fog in Nepal on Sunday, killing all 19 people on board, officials said.
The turboprop plane belonging to Buddha Air was carrying 16 foreign tourists and three crew members and crashed in Bisankunarayan village, just a few miles (kilometers) south of the capital, Katmandu.
Rewant Kuwar, an official at the Katmandu Airport rescue office, said 18 bodies were pulled out of the plane's wreckage, and that a man died later after being rushed to a hospital.
The identities of the victims were still unclear, but most were believed to be Indian tourists, Kuwar said.
An eyewitness, Haribol Poudel, told Avenues Television that the plane had hit the roof of a house in the village and disintegrated into several pieces. No casualties were reported on the ground.
Poudel said it was foggy, and that visibility was very low in the mountainous area.
The Beechcraft 1900D plane — manufactured by Raytheon Aircraft, now known as Hawker Beechcraft — had taken the tourists to view Mount Everest and other high peaks and was returning to Katmandu. The "mountain flight" takes tourists over the Everest region, and passengers can view some of the world's highest peaks from the airplane windows.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 25, 2011, 12:26