Nepal plane crash pilot recovering after cockpit ripped away from doomed aircraft

Doctors say he is stable but has broken ribs and vertebra

Rescuers carry the injured pilot to safety. AFP

Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, the lone survivor of the ill-fated Nepalese Saurya Airlines plane that crashed immediately after take-off killing 18 people, is undergoing treatment but is “out of danger”, doctors said.

Mr Shakya, 37, was rescued from the cockpit after rescue workers, including personnel from the Nepalese army, police and firefighters, broke open the window, moments before it caught fire, a police official told The National.

He was flying a Bombardier CRJ200 from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to the resort town of Pokhara on Wednesday morning, carrying 17 of the airline's technical staff and co-pilot Sushant Katwal.

But moments after take-off, the aircraft veered off the runway, catching fire and plunging into a gorge.

Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft “turned right and crashed on the east side of the runway”.

Videos posted on social media showed the plane rising above the runway and then banking to its right before crashing into the ground and exploding in a ball of fire.

Television images showed Mr Shakya being carried by emergency workers, his face smeared with blood and his eyes swollen.

He was rushed to the Kathmandu Medical College in an army ambulance where doctors said he was stable but had broken his ribs and vertebra.

“He is out of danger; he is somewhat OK. He is not in shock and is talking,” Dr Meena Thapa, Medical Director of Kathmandu Medical College, told The National.

“One vertebra has broken, and doctors are planning a surgery later. There is a fracture of three ribs, but doctors do not think it needs surgery. We are discussing. There were multiple cuts and injuries on his face that have been repaired already,” Ms Thapa said.

Mr Shakya joined the airline in 2014.

While 18 others, including a couple and their four-year-old son and a Yemeni were killed in the crash, Mr Shakya survived after the cockpit split from the flaming wreckage of the plane.

The Nepalese army said in a statement that he was rescued within “five minutes of the crash and was very scared but had not lost consciousness at that time”.

“We rescued him from the cockpit. The aircraft had broken into various pieces. The cockpit was in one place and the other pieces were in another place,” Dinesh Raj Mailani, spokesperson for the District Police Office in Kathmandu, told The National.

“The security forces were able to rescue him by breaking the window,” he said.

Mr Mailani said three others were also rescued from the crash site but they succumbed to their injuries on the way to the hospital.

Authorities have sent the deceased for postmortem examinations at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital.

The administration has assigned 25 doctors for the procedures and the reports will be given to the family members in three days, The Kathmandu Post reported.

Some bodies were recognisable, but others were charred beyond recognition, the newspaper reported.

Bereaved family members and friends gathered at the hospital on Thursday, many of whom claimed the aircraft had technical issues and questioned the airlines regulator.

“We suspect that the company put pressure on the pilots into flying the plane. Otherwise, no one would like to fly a plane with technical problems,” Dirga Bahadur Khadka, a grand uncle of co-pilot Sushant Katwal, told The Kathmandu Post.

“A question also arises about the civil aviation authority, the aviation sector regulator,” he said.

Nepal has one of worst aviation disaster records.

There have been 27 deadly plane crashes in the country over the past three decades, killing more than 600 people, according to the Aviation Safety database.

In 1992, 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed as it approached Kathmandu.

In January last year, 72 people were killed when a Yeti Airlines flight crashed near the city of Pokhara.

In December, the EU extended a decade-long ban on Nepali airlines in its airspace, saying they did not meet international aviation safety standards.

Notoriously, Nepal's Tribhuvan International airport, that is located at a narrow valley at an altitude of 1,338, leaves pilots with a very tight space to turn and navigate.

The country also scored poorly for accident investigations in an audit in 2022 by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, despite the country rating higher on other aspects, such as legislation.