2024 Saurya Airlines Bombardier CRJ200 crash

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Saurya Airlines Flight FER
Saurya Airlines CRJ200ER 9N-AME (cropped).jpg
9N-AME, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 2019 in a previous livery
Accident
Date24 July 2024 (2024-07-24)
SummaryCrashed shortly after take-off, under investigation
Site Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal
Aircraft
Aircraft type Bombardier CRJ200ER
Operator Saurya Airlines
ICAO flight No.SAU-FER
Registration 9N-AME [1]
Flight origin Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal
Destination Pokhara International Airport, Gandaki Province, Nepal
Occupants19
Passengers16
Crew3
Fatalities18
Injuries1
Survivors1

On 24 July 2024, a Bombardier CRJ200ER operated by Saurya Airlines as Flight FER, [2] crashed shortly after take-off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, killing 18 out of 19 people on board. [3] [4]

Contents

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Bombardier CRJ200ER, registered as 9N-AME with manufacturer serial number 7772, built by Bombardier Aviation in 2003 and powered by two General Electric CF34-3B1 engines. [1] [5] The aircraft was first delivered to Atlantic Coast Airlines and then entered into service with Saurya Airlines, then known as Kuber Airlines, in 2017. [5]

The plane was set to fly from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu to Pokhara on a ferry flight, and was carrying two flight crew members and 17 passengers. [3] Saurya Airlines said that maintenance on the aircraft was scheduled for 25 July. [6] The aircraft was on the ground at Kathmandu for the 34 days before the accident. [7]

Passengers and crew

The plane was carrying two crew and according to some sources, 16 technicians employed to conduct routine maintenance on the aircraft. [3] One passenger on the flight was a child. [7]

The captain of the flight, 35-year-old Manish Shakya, had an airline transport pilot licence and had 6,186 flight hours in total, 4,992 of which on the CRJ-200. The first officer, 26-year-old Sushant Katuwal, had a commercial pilot licence and he had 1,824 flight hours in total, 1,602 of which on the CRJ-200. A third crew member was serving as an engineer, Yemeni Aref Reda. [7] [3] [8] [9]

NationalityPassengersCrewTotalFatalitiesSurvivors
Nepali16218171
Yemeni01110
Total16319181

Accident

Smoke rising from the crash site Smoke from Saurya Airlines crash 24 Jul 2024.jpg
Smoke rising from the crash site

The accident occurred on 24 July 2024 around 11:15 NPT shortly after the aircraft took off. [6] The plane lifted only slightly above the runway before it rolled onto its side and crashed. Footage and eyewitness accounts indicated that the plane took off from the runway's southern end, made a sharp bank and fell, its wing tip striking the ground first. The plane caught fire on impact and skidded into a gorge east of the runway between an aircraft hangar and a radar station. [10] Footage of the incident showed firefighters putting out the blaze while attempting to rescue survivors. [3] According to the civil aviation minister, Badri Pandey, the cockpit was severed from the main fuselage by a freight container just before the main body impacted the ground. The cockpit became embedded in the container while the rest of the aircraft was carried further down the gorge. [11]

Out of the 19 people on board, 18 people were killed in the crash. [12] [8] [9] The captain was the only survivor and was taken to Kathmandu Medical College Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. [6] [13] [14] The first officer was identified as Sushant Katuwal. [9] [15]

There was low visibility in Kathmandu at the time of the accident. [14] One airport official reported that "cracking noises" seemed to come from the plane prior to crashing. [6]

Aftermath

Tribhuvan International Airport was temporarily shut down following the disaster, [3] and Saurya Airlines suspended all flights following the accident. [16] Three passengers survived the accident but died later in a hospital. [17] The bodies of the victims were taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for autopsies. [14] The captain was rescued "within five minutes of the crash," and received head and facial injuries, and fractured bones in his back. [11]

Investigation

The head of Tribhuvan International Airport said that initial investigations showed that the aircraft turned towards the wrong direction shortly after takeoff. [6]

Both flight recorders of the aircraft were recovered from the crash site and were sent to the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore for analysis, under supervision of Nepal's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC) and with representatives from Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States. [7]

Preliminary report

On 5 September, the AAIC released the preliminary report on the crash. Based on data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the aircraft rotated excessively during takeoff at 5:25:55 UTC, briefly pitching up at a rate of 8.6° per second. [a] The aircraft reached a maximum height of just 100 ft (30 m) above ground level at 5:26:03 UTC seven seconds before the right wingtip impacted the ground. The stick shaker activated multiple times within an eight second timespan between 5:25:58 and 5:26:04 UTC. [7]

The preliminary report also highlighted oversights at the airline that were deemed critical. The report revealed how Saurya Airlines was not complying with the proper procedures for loading aircraft, including properly securing loads and weighing loads. Additionally, it was also shown that the airline did not properly obtain permissions for flying the accident flight. [7]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ A pitch rate above 3° per second is considered excessive. [7]

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References

  1. 1 2 "18 dead as plane crashes in Kathmandu, pilot survives, taken to hospital". India Today. 2024-07-24. Archived from the original on 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  2. ↑ Onta, Vishad Raj (2024-07-24). "18 dead in Nepal aircraft crash". nepalitimes.com. Retrieved 2024-08-13.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "At least 18 dead in Nepal plane crash, officials say". Reuters. 24 July 2024. Retrieved 24 July 2024.
  4. ↑ Hradecky, Simon (2024-07-24). "Crash: Saurya CRJ2 near Kathmandu on Jul 24 2024, rolled right and lost height after take off". The Aviation Herald. Archived from the original on 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  5. 1 2 Chua, Alfred (24 July 2024). "Saurya Airlines CRJ200 fatally crashes during take-off from Kathmandu". FlightGlobal. Archived from the original on 24 July 2024. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 "Pilot only survivor of fatal Nepal plane crash". BBC. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 PRELIMINARY REPORT ON ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION of 9N-AME (CRJ 200LR, MSN 7772) Aircraft Operated by Saurya Airlines Pvt. Ltd. on July 24, 2024 (PDF) (Report). Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission. 5 September 2024.
  8. 1 2 "List of passengers of crashed Saurya Airlines". The Rising Nepali. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  9. 1 2 3 "Saurya Airlines plane crash: One among 18 dead victims identified as Yemeni national". The Rising Nepal. Archived from the original on 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  10. ↑ "Saurya Airlines aircraft crashes during takeoff in Kathmandu". Kathmandu Post. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  11. 1 2 Bennett, Tom; Dahal, Ashok (25 July 2024). "Pilot survived Nepal crash after cockpit split from plane". BBC News. Archived from the original on 25 July 2024. Retrieved 25 July 2024.
  12. ↑ "Nepal: Plane crashes in Kathmandu with 19 on board". DW. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  13. ↑ "VIDEO: Nepal Plane Crash: Moment when flight with 19 people onboard crashed at Kathmandu airport captured". WION. 2024-07-24. Archived from the original on 2024-07-24. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  14. 1 2 3 "Plane crashes just after takeoff from Nepal's capital, killing 18 people. Pilot is lone survivor". Associated Press. 2024-07-24. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  15. ↑ "List of passengers of crashed Saurya Airlines". The Rising Nepal. Archived from the original on 2024-07-26. Retrieved 2024-07-24.
  16. ↑ Curran, Andrew (July 28, 2024). "Nepal's Saurya Airlines suspends flights after fatal crash". ch-aviation. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  17. ↑ "Captain Shakya, lone survivor of Nepal crash moved to general ward from ICU: Report". The Indian Express. 2024-07-26. Archived from the original on 2024-07-27. Retrieved 2024-07-27.
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