Eighteen people have been died after a plane slipped off the runway and caught fire at a Nepal airport.
A Saurya Airlines aircraft crashed during takeoff at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu on Wednesday, according to local media.
The plane was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians to Pokhara city for maintenance checks, Airport Security Chief Arjun Chand Thakuri said.
Police said 18 bodies have been recovered after a plane carrying 19 people slipped off the runway at a Nepal airport.
"Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital," said Tej Bahadur Poudyal, the spokesman for Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.
Footage showed firefighters trying to put out the fire and thick black some rising into the sky.
Thick billows of smoke could be seen in the airport while emergency services carried out a rescue operation.
"It (the plane) caught fire after skidding off the runway at Kathmandu airport and crashing into a field east of the runway," Mr Thakuri said.
Saurya Airlines, which operates domestic flights in Nepal with two Bombardier CRJ-200 regional jets, both around 20 years old, according to Flight Radar 24.
Nepal has been criticised for its poor air safety record, with the deadliest incident occurring in 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus crashed into a hillside while approaching Kathmandu, killing 167 people.
Most recently, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti airlines crash in January 2023 that was later attributed to the pilots mistakenly cutting off power.
