Kathmandu: All the 19 people including three crew
members on board a Dornier Aircraft bound to Lukla (the nearest airport to the
Mt Everest Base camp) on-board were charred to death when the plane caught fire
and crashed shortly after taking off from the Kathmandu.
According to the Nepalese authorities, on
board of the Sita Air plane there were seven UK subjects, five Chinese and
seven Nepalese nationals, including the plane crew.
As per earlier officials report it crashed
into a river bank and caught fire.
The plane caught fire just a minute after
takeoff and crashed some twenty meters away from the airport parking lot.
The plane had been
heading for Lukla, the hub for trekking in the Everest region.
Local television channels showed several
hundred soldiers and police officers picking through the smouldering wreckage
of the aircraft, which was a Dornier Fairchild 228.
The victims' bodies were completely charred
by the blaze. The cause of fire is yet to be known.
It is remarkable that
autumn is the peak climbing season in Nepal, which has eight of the world's 14
highest mountains, including Everest.
It is not the first misshape
of its kind the plane accident is the sixth fatal air crash in Nepal in less
than two years, with 76 lives lost in that period before Friday, raising fresh
questions about the safety record of the country's numerous small airlines.