Nepal Aircraft Crash Kills 18: A Look At Recent Tragic Aviation Accidents Across The Globe

In a tragic accident, a Saurya Airlines aircraft crashed during takeoff at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on Wednesday, killing at least 18 people.

The Pokhara-bound plane, carrying 19 people, including the cabin crew, slipped off the runway and crashed at around 11 am. Visuals from the accident site show a large fire with smoke rising at the Tribhuvan International Airport.

Nepal witnesses about one flight disaster a year on average and is considered one of the trickiest regions to fly an airplane due to the rocky and treacherous nature of its topography.

According to Nepal’s civil aviation authority’s air safety report in 2019, the country’s “diversity of weather patterns together with hostile topography are the main challenges surrounding aircraft operations in Nepal due to which the number of accidents related to small aircraft seems comparatively higher”.

In the past, the world has seen several aviation crashes including choppers and aircraft, resulting in major fatalities.

Here’s a list of recent aviation crashes:

• Gazpromavia Flight 9608 (July 12, 2024): A Sukhoi Superjet passenger plane crashed in Moscow with all the three crew members onboard were killed. The plane had crashed in woodland near the city of Kolomna.
• Iran Chopper crash (May 20, 2024): Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi along with seven other people were killed when the helicopter they were travelling in came down near the border with Azerbaijan. Besides Raisi, Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, as well as the governor of East Azerbaijan province, Malek Rahmati, and Tabriz’s Friday prayer leader, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e Hashem, a senior Shia cleric who was also Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s official representative in East Azerbaijan were also killed in the crash.
• Russian military cargo plane crash (March 12, 2024): Russia’s Ilyushin Il-76 military cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff with 15 people on board due to a fire in one of its engines. All 15 people were killed in the accident.
• Nepal’s Manang Air chopper crash (July 11, 2023): Six people, including five Mexican tourists and a Nepali pilot, died in a helicopter crash in Nepal’s Mount Everest region. The helicopter, operated by Manang Air, was travelling from near Lukla, the gateway for climbing expeditions to the world’s highest peak, to the capital city of Kathmandu.
• Yeti Airlines Crash in Pokhara (January 15, 2023): – A Yeti Airlines flight crashed near the central city of Pokhara, with all 72 people on board, including passengers and crew members, killed in the incident. The aircraft plummeted into a steep gorge, breaking into pieces and bursting into flames as it approached Pokhara.
• Tara Air Crash (May 29, 2022): A Tara Air plane crashed in Nepal’s Mustang district, resulting in the fatalities of all 22 individuals aboard.
• IAF Mi-17 crash (December 8, 2021): India’s top official, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen Bipin Rawat, his wife, and twelve other defense officials were killed in a chopper crash near Tamil Nadu’s Coonoor in 2021. The accident took place due to the entry into clouds due to an unexpected change in weather conditions in the valley. This led to the pilot’s spatial disorientation, resulting in a Controlled Flight into Terrain (CFIT).
• Indonesia’s Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 (January 9, 2021): A Boeing 737-500 crashed into the Java Sea shortly after takeoff from Jakarta, Indonesia, killing all 62 people on board.
• Calabasas helicopter crash (January 26, 2020): Basketball star Kobe Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others were killed in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California, US.
• Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 (March 10, 2019): A Boeing 737 MAX crashed shortly after takeoff from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, killing all 157 people on board. This crash led to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX worldwide.