KATHMANDU: Nepal’s only international airport was closed on Friday after a plane skidded off the recently repaired runway, injuring two people, officials said.
The country has a poor flight safety record — Nepali airlines are banned from European Union airspace — and its airports are notoriously difficult to land in.
The Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500, arriving into Kathmandu from southern Nepal with 66 passengers, skidded about 15 metres into the grass.
“Our teams are working to remove the plane and reopen the airport,” the airport’s general manager Raj Kumar Chettri said.
Chettri said that removing the Franco-Italian-made turboprop plane was taking a long time because heavy rain has made the area muddy.
Authorities took 11 hours to remove a domestic aircraft that suffered a similar runway excursion in September last year, months after a Malaysian jet with 139 people on board had aborted its takeoff and skidded off the runway.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airways plane crashed near the airport, killing 51 people.
The Himalayan nation has some of the world’s most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge for even accomplished pilots.
Meanwhile, at least 11 people have been killed across Nepal after torrential monsoon rains induced floods and landslides, officials said on Friday.
Heavy rains since Thursday have hit several districts in Nepal, especially in the country’s eastern region and the southern plains.
A Home Ministry official said that so far 11 people have died, 13 are injured and another eight have been reported missing.
Three were killed when a wall collapsed in the capital Kathmandu.
“Local authorities and our security officials are all working to rescue people and bring them to safety. Helicopters are on standby if needed,” Umakanta Adhikari said.
Nepal’s weather department warned on Thursday that heavy rains were expected to continue for two days, and advised people to stay alert.
Nearly 150 people died last year in Nepal during the rainy season, which typically begins in late June and lasts until the end of August.
In Bangladesh aid groups were providing rations to Rohingya refugees in the southeast of the country with the UN World Food Programme saying on Friday that two people including a child had died. — AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
