Vliegtuigongeluk - Nepal: nieuws en historie

Vliegtuigongelukken en ongelukken met helicopters komen helaas regelmatig voor in Nepal. Gelukkig gaat het bij de meeste incidenten slechts om materiele schade bijv door vliegtuigen die van de landingsbanen glijden of door het landingsgestel zakken, maar af en toe zijn er ergere ongelukken waarbij vele mensen de dood vinden.

Een selectie van ongelukken en incidenten in de afgelopen jaren:

14 mei, 2012
Toestel Agni Air crasht bij Jomsom Airport
Een vliegtuig met daarin 21 mensen is neergestort in het noorden van Nepal in het Himalaya-gebergte. Hierbij zijn zeker vijftien mensen omgekomen. Het vliegtuig had 18 passagiers, waarvan er zestien uit India komen en twee met een Westerse nationaliteit.

29 november, 2011
Fishtail chopper crashes in Solukhumbu
Fishtail Air helicopter met with an accident in Lobuche of Solukhumbu soon after taking off for Lukla of the mountainous district on Tuesday afternoon. All three people on board including the pilots are said to be safe, Mahendra Kumar Rai, the Air Traffic Controller at the Luka Airport told a Kathmandu-based television station over telephone.

26 november, 2011
Sita Air plane crash-lands at Nepalgunj airport
A plane belonging to Sita Air crash landed at Ranjha Airport in Nepalgunj on Saturday. All crew members and passengers on the plane are safe, said Civil Aviation Authority, Nepalgunj. The chartered aircraft, 9NAHR, had taken off from Jumla and was to land in Nepalgunj. It crash-landed after its landing gear failed, said officials. Civil Aviation Authority Nepalgunj office chief Narendra Thapa said major damage was averted thanks to the pilot. Pilot Fijunath Nepali said he prevented the plane from catching fire by killing the engine after learning that the landing gear had malfunctioned.

21 november, 2011
Makalu Air plane 'crash-lands' at Talcha airport
An aircraft of Makalu Airport caught fire while landing at Talcha Airport of Mugu district (near Rara Lake) on Monday evening. With nine passengers and two crew members, the 9NAZM plane had took off from Nepalgunj at 4 pm. Captain PJ Shah and three passengers have been injured in the incident. Preparations are being made to airlift the injured for treatment. Sashikala Budha and Parshuram Nepali, both of them residents of Roba VDC in the district, have been seriously injured.

07 november, 2011
Fishtail chopper makes emergency landing at Charikot
A helicopter of the Fishtail Air with five tourists on board that had left for Kathmandu from the Tenzing Hillary Airport, Lukla has made an emergency landing at Charikot, Dolakha citing technical snag in course of the flight. An official at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Office, Lukla said although a technical problem was reported in the helicopter, it is not ascertained yet what the main problem was.

26 oktober, 2011
Yeti Airlines plane engine explodes at Pokhara airport
A possible airplane disaster was averted in Pokhara in the context of a series of airplane accidents. The engine of the 9N AHW (Jet Spring) airplane of the Yeti Airlines exploded as the aircraft was about to take off at Pokhara airport this evening. The plane was scheduled to fly to Kathmandu with 23 passengers on board. There was flame out after the engine exploded, but fortunately a major disaster was averted as the plane had not taken off from the runway.

18 oktober, 2011
Nepal Army plane crashes with six on board
A Britten-Norman Islander of the Nepal Army (NA) crashed on a hillock called Chaudhulko Dhuri at Bowang-9, Baglung, at 7.15 pm Tuesday. The ill-fated islander, which was carrying a patient to Kathmandu and had six people on board, lost its way shortly after it took off from Nepalgunj Airport at 6.35 pm and crashed on the hillock. There were two crew members, a doctor, medico, a patient and his elder brother on board. The plane was one of the two gifted by the British government in July 2004 when the Maoist insurgency was at its peak and was equipped with surveillance devices.

16 oktober, 2011
A Nepal Airlines plane met with a minor accident Sunday afternoon after it skidded off the run way at Lukla Airport in Solukhumbu district. The aircraft was hired by Tara Air. The 9N-AVO twin-otter went out of control due to the failure of the hydraulic break in the runway, according to airport sources.
19 persons on board the aircraft including 16 passengers and 3 crew members are safe.

7 oktober, 2011
Tara Air cargo aircraft skids off runway in Lukla.
The 9N AIV Pilatus porter aircraft of the Tara Air skidded off the runway in Lukla, around noon Thursday. The plane met with the mishap at 12:15 pm while trying to land carrying a cargo from Ramechhap, as it hit a gate of the Hotel La Villa 15 metres away from the runway after being uncontrolled while landing, witnesses told RSS. Although the aircraft has been totally damaged, Captain Kosh Thapa is unhurt, said the Lukla Civil Aviation Office. Last year, Sita Air had similar accident here, and the aircraft is still there.

25 September, 2011
Buddha Air plane crashes at Lalitpur; all 19 on board killed.
A Buddha Air plane returning from mountain flight crashed at Kotdanda hill in Lalitpur district Sunday morning, killing all 19 persons on board including three crew members. According to locals and security personnel involved in rescue, 18 persons were killed on the spot while one passenger, Nirajan Karmacharya, 36, who was rescued alive, died while undergoing treatment at B&B Hospital at Saatdobato, Lalitpur.

24 June, 2011
Tara Air plane crash lands in Simikot airport.
A Tara Air cargo plane has crash-landed at the Simikot Airport, in Humla on Friday morning. The Tara Air Dornier 228 from Nepalgunj met with the accident after it skidded off the runway, while landing, reports said. There were three crew members in the cargo plane which was carrying rice to Humla. All the crew members including pilot BR Niraula are unharmed.

06 November, 2010
Fishtail Air helicopter crashes near Mt Ama Dablam killing two people.
The bodies of Captain Sabin Basnet and Technician Purna Awale have been brought to Kathmandu today from the Fishtail Air helicopter 9N AIK-AS350, which crashed near the base camp of Mt Amadabalum on Saturday morning. The chopper was on a mission to rescue two Japanese mountaineers, who had fallen ill at the base camp of the Mt Amadabalum.

10 Oktober, 2010
Makalu Air plane crash lands in Simikot airport.
A cargo aircraft owned by Makalu Air met with an accident at Simikot Airport in Humla district. The airplane (with 2 crew members on board) met with the accident at 7.05 a.m. when it experienced some technical malfunctioning while landing. The aircraft lost control over its brake in course of turning from the west corner of the airport’s runway. However, the pilot managed to preclude further misfortune with his expertise.

24 augustus, 2010
Agni air plane crashes in Makwanpur, 14 aboard killed
A small aircraft owned by Agni Air crashed in Makawanpur, southwest of Kathmandu, early in the morning Tuesday, killing all 14 people onboard. The plane has broken into pieces and all those on board were killed, eyewitnesses confirmed. Six foreigners, five Nepalis and three crew members were aboard the ill-starred Dornier aircraft. Four Americans, one British and one Japanese national are among the deceased foreigners.

8 Oktober, 2008
Twelve German tourists among 18 people killed when a passenger plane crashed during landing at Lukla.

23 September 2006
24 people killed in helicopter crash in eastern Nepal.
Officials in Nepal say all 24 people, including a group of conservationists, who were in a helicopter which crashed in eastern Nepal have been killed. The helicopter lost radio contact during bad weather after it took off in a mountainous district on Saturday. The chopper was carrying seven WWF employees - four Nepalis, an Australian, a Canadian and an American.

22 Augustus 2002
Nepal plane crash near Pokhara kills 18 people.
A small plane carrying 18 people, including 15 foreign tourists, crashed today as it approached the western Nepalese resort town of Pokhara, killing all those aboard, police said. The plane was carrying 13 Germans, one Briton, one American and three crew members, Pokhara's police chief, Kumar Koirala, said. He confirmed that thirteen bodies have been recovered so far.

Zoals gezegd dit is slechts een deel van de incidenten. Het werkelijk aantal vliegtuigongelukken en slachtoffers is helaas nog groter.

Lukla Airport

Lukla's Tenzing-Hillary airport in de Everest regio in Nepal is een van de gevaarlijkste vliegvelden in de wereld en ligt op een hoogte van 2.800 meter in Solukhumbu district.
Lukla, vliegveld, Everest regio De korte landingsbaan (460 meter) is alleen geschikt voor short-takeoff-and-landing (STOL) aircrafts (zoals de twin-otters van Tara Air/Yeti Airlines) en helicopters, heeft een helling van 12% en eindigt met een stenen muur aan de ene kant (heuvelopwaarts) en een kleine afgrond aan de andere kant, die gevolgd wordt door een diepe vallei een stukje verderop.
Zodra een piloot de start heeft ingezet kan deze niet meer worden afgebroken en moet deze poging dus succesvol zijn. Hetzelfde geldt voor de landing daar een hoge berg achter de landingsbaan een doorstart onmogelijk maakt.
Vluchten vinden meestal plaats tussen zonsopgang en het middaguur als de weersomstandigheden goed zijn (goed zicht en niet te veel wind). Dit is niet altijd het geval en soms in het vliegveld enkele dagen tot meer dan een week gesloten waardoor vele toeristen en Nepalezen stranden.

Gerelateerd nieuws

Bad weather disrupts flights to Lukla Airport, Thousands of tourists stranded (03-11-2011)
SOLUKHUMBU: No flight has been made to the Tenjing-Hillary Airport, Lukla, on the third consecutive day on Thursday, due to unfavorable weather, where more than 50 flights were made in each day. Thousands of foreign tourists, who want to return to Kathmandu completing their trekking, have been stranded in Lukla due to the disruption of flights. Dangima Sherpa, a hotelier, said tourists have been packed in hotels of Lukla Bazaar due to the bad weather for the past three days.

Over 1500 stranded tourists rescued (nepalnews.com 21-11-2010)
More than 1,500 tourists and passengers stranded at Lukla, the only airport for the Everest region, for more than a week have been rescued on Saturday with the help of the Army helicopters and other helicopters and airplanes operated by private airlines. They were stranded there due to bad weather in the region which hindered the operation of regular flights to and from Lukla.

Video's

Hieronder vind je 2 filmpjes mbt Lukla airport: