At least 18 people were killed after a small plane skidded off the runway in Nepal\u2019s capital on Wednesday, according to local officials. <\/p>\n
One person survived the Saurya Airlines crash, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. All aboard – 18 Nepalis and a Yemeni citizen – were employees of the carrier, <\/strong>according to police. <\/p>\n Images from Nepal police showed thick smoke billowing from the burning aircraft on the the airport runway. <\/p>\n The plane was en route for technical maintenance, he added. <\/p>\n \u201cRescue efforts were started immediately and the situation was brought under control,\u201d the aviation authority said. <\/p>\n The crash once again highlights the dangers of air travel in Nepal, a country often referred to as one of the riskiest places to fly due to multiple factors including its mountainous terrain. <\/p>\n The Himalayan country, home to eight of the world\u2019s 14 highest mountains including Everest, has a record of air accidents. Its weather can change suddenly, and airstrips are typically sited in difficult-to-reach, mountainous areas. <\/p>\n Aircraft with 19 seats or fewer are more likely to have accidents due to these difficulties, according to a 2019 safety report from the Civil Aviation Authority. <\/p>\n While the country has made improvements in safety standards in recent years, challenges remain, and a lack of investment in aging aircraft only adds to the risks of flying. <\/p>\n Last year, Nepal saw its worst plane crash in more than 30 years when at least 68 people died when a Yeti Airlines flight went down near Pokhara. <\/p>\n In May 2022, a Tara Air flight departing from Pokhara crashed into a mountain, killing 22 people. <\/p>\n In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Bangladesh\u2019s capital Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 people. <\/p>\n And in 2016, a Tara Air flight crashed while flying the same route as the 2023 crash. <\/p>\n This is a developing story and will be updated.<\/i> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" At least 18 people were killed after a small plane skidded off the runway in Nepal\u2019s capital on Wednesday, according to local officials. One person survived the Saurya Airlines crash, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. All aboard – 18 Nepalis and a Yemeni citizen – were employees of the carrier, according to police. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}