Bangladesh plane carrying 71 people crashes in Nepal

[March 12, 2018]  By Gopal Sharma

KATHMANDU (Reuters) - A Bangladeshi aircraft carrying 67 passengers and four crew crashed on Monday while coming in to land at the airport in the Nepali capital, Kathmandu, an airport official said, adding that 17 people on board had been rescued.

The state of the other people on the flight from the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, operated by US-Bangla Airlines, was not clear, airport spokesman Birendra Prasad Shrestha said.

"We are trying to bring the fire under control. Details are awaited," he said, adding that the airport had been shut down and all other flights diverted.

"We're now concentrating on evacuating the passengers."

Television images showed smoke rising from the crash site.

Mountainous Nepal is notorious for air accidents. Small aircraft often run into trouble at provincial airstrips.

A Thai Airways flight from Bangkok crashed while trying to land in Kathmandu in 1992 killing all on board.

US-Bangla Airlines is a unit of the US-Bangla Group, a U.S. Bangladeshi joint venture company.

Wreckage of an airplane is pictured as rescue workers operate at Kathmandu airport, Nepal March 12, 2018. REUTERS/ Navesh Chitrakar

The Bangladeshi carrier launched operations in July 2014 and operates Bombardier Inc <BBDb.TO> and Boeing <BA.N> aircraft.

(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani, Robert Birsel)

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