NewBiz Report

KATHMANDU, JULY 25

A Cabinet meeting on Wednesday evening decided to form a five-member committee to probe the Saurya Airlines crash which claimed the lives of 18 people onboard.

Pilot Manish Ratna Shakya remains the sole survivor in the crash at the Tribhuvan International Airport at 11:11 am on Wednesday. Shakya is receiving treatment at the Kathmandu Medical College in Sinamangal.

The probe committee is led by Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, former director general at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), according to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation. Four other members include Deepu Jwarchan, Operation Director (Instructor Pilot) at Nepal Airlines; Sudip Bhattarai, head of the Mechanical and Aerospace Department at Pulchowk Campus; Sanjay Adhikari, aircraft maintenance engineer at Shree Airlines; and Mukesh Dangol, Air Traffic Control (ATC) Officer under the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Dangol will serve in the committee as a member secretary.

The committee has been given a 45-days deadline to submit a report.

A Saurya Airlines Bombardier CRJ 200 plane with a registration mark 9N-AME veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway, shortly after taking off from runway 02 (Koteshwar side) at 11:11 am, said the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) in a press statement. 

The plane had caught fire in the accident. Rescuers found 18–17 Nepalis and one Yemini citizen–of the 19 people onboard dead.

The bodies of the deceased were taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj, Kathmandu for postmortem, which began late Wednesday evening.