US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Five killed in Kathmandu plane crash

The five crew members of the Boeing 727 cargo plane that crashed on a southern hill of the Kathmandu valley have died, the state-run Nepal Television said this morning.

The plane, operated by a joint venture between German Airlines, Lufthansa and the London-based Hindujas, crashed minutes after taking off from Kathmandu yesterday.

The plane, bound for New Delhi, was carrying about 21 tonnes of Cargo, mostly Nepalese carpets and garments for west European markets.

According to reports, the first police rescue team reached the site of the crash at the 2200-metre-high Champa Devi peak last night.

The body of one of the crew members was found this morning.

Nepal Television quoted eyewitnesses as saying that the wreckage of the plane was strewn over a wide area in the hill.

According to media reports in Kathmandu this morning, hundreds of people saw the plane crash yesterday and they clogged media offices with telephone calls.

The English language daily Kathmandu Post quoted Capt. Shuba Shrestha of the Royal Nepal Airlines who ruled out weather as a possible cause of the accident.

''For a monsoon day, Kathmandu had a good weather yesterday and weather had nothing to do with the accident,'' he was quoted as saying.

''The plane probably had mechanical trouble or else any pilot failing to gain height would have aborted the flight and returned,'' he was quoted as saying.

The five crew members on board the aircraft have been identified as Gonjalez, Shahni, Vargava, Singh and Roy. Their full names were not available till this morning.

The Nepalese Army, police and other rescue teams are at the accident site and, despite rains and thick fog, they are reported to be carrying out their task.

Tell us what you think of this report