49 passengers dead after plane crashes at Kathmandu Airport
At least 49 people are dead and 22 injured after a plane crashed Monday afternoon at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, reports said.
A police official added that 10 passengers were still unaccounted for.
There were a total of 71 people on board the US-Bangla Airlines plane.
The plane (call sign S2-AGU) had been flying in from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Reuters reported a Kathmandu Airport official as saying the passenger plane "became unstable" while descending and crashed.
Also read: Rescue workers pull bodies out of the wreckage
Images posted on social media showed smoke rising from the airport.
Gutted but lucky to be alive - this airplane missed the Kathmandu domestic airport area(where I was waiting for my helicopter to fly to Lukla) by a few kilometers.
— Obi [WAN] (@_obi_wan_kenobi) March 12, 2018
I climbed to the domestic airport rooftop to see what happened. Found this -
P.S. hoping there are no casualties pic.twitter.com/6elGCeFeOJ
Eight bodies recovered so far from plane crash in #Nepal; more deaths feared, reports Reuters #Kathmandu pic.twitter.com/Nz9odSOIT8
— ANI (@ANI) March 12, 2018
Photos from the #TIA #Kathmandu #Nepal #USBangla (Pic- @IsarojB ) pic.twitter.com/FAoWCxIttq
— Narayan Amrit (@amritna) March 12, 2018
Plane #crash at #TIA airport #Kathmandu Apparently a US Bangla plane from #Dhaka crashed. pic.twitter.com/2fN8XoXxrD
— prazeet (@pzstha) March 12, 2018
Meanwhile in airport. Must be a plane. ☹️ pic.twitter.com/zD0J4DBxwE
— Rushu (@roohsaa) March 12, 2018
Breaking: Plane crashed when they were landed in Kathmandu airport. pic.twitter.com/Gk8tNYdPv7
— Dil Nisani Magar (@dil_nisani) March 12, 2018
Other reports quoted TIA spokesperson Prem Nath Thakur as saying the plane caught fire after it careened off the runway while landing and crashed into a football ground near the airport.
TIA and Nepal Army teams have been rushed into rescue operations.