Passenger plane crashes in northwest Nepal, injuring 9

USPA News - A small passenger plane crashed in a river in northwestern Nepal on early Thursday morning, but all twenty-one people on board miraculously survived the accident, officials said. Nine of the survivors were said to be injured, some of them seriously.

The Nepal Airlines plane, a Twin-Otter aircraft, had taken off from Nepal`s second largest city of Pokhara at around 8:10 a.m. local time. It was carrying a total of 21 people on board, including three crew members, and was heading for the airport in Jomsom, a town in the Mustang District of the country`s Dhawalagiri Zone. The accident happened at approximately 8:30 a.m. local time when the aircraft was attempting to land but skidded off the runway, causing it to crash into the banks of the Kaligandaki River. Everyone survived the accident, but nine people were injured and rushed to a nearby hospital. A local official said five people were in a critical condition, including the pilot who was identified as Captain D Pradhan. The nationalities of those injured were not immediately known, but eight of those on board were said to be Japanese citizens, with the others on board being from Nepal. Their destination was not immediately known, but Jomsom`s popular pilgrimage site Muktinath is commonly visited by Hindus and Buddhists. Aviation accidents occur regularly in Nepal. All nineteen people on board a twin-engine Dornier aircraft, operated by Sita Air, were killed in September 2012 when the plane crashed shortly after taking off in Kathmandu, the Nepali capital. Among those killed were seven British nationals, five Chinese nationals and seven local citizens.