Seven people were hurt on Friday night when a Buddha Air ATR-72 ran off the end of the runway while landing at Bhadrapur Airport in Jhapa, in eastern Nepal. Aviation authorities have started a technical investigation.
Flight U4 901 left Kathmandu at 8:23 pm and touched down at Bhadrapur around 9:10 pm. It overran the eastern end of the runway by approximately 300 metres and stopped in grassy, muddy ground. Think of it as a car that misses its stopping point and rolls well past the line, only here the line was the end of the pavement.
The plane carried 51 passengers, four crew members and one aircraft engineer. Co-pilot Sushant Shrestha, 24, of Lalitpur-4, suffered head and facial injuries. He is being treated at Omsai Pathibhara Hospital in Bhadrapur. Six passengers had minor injuries, were given first aid and were discharged, police said.
Rescue and response
About 70 personnel from the Nepal Police and other security agencies were mobilised at once. Superintendent of Police Rajan Limbu said everyone was evacuated safely and the injured were taken quickly to hospital.
Buddha Air put out a statement on Saturday saying it takes the incident seriously. It thanked the Nepal Police, Nepali Army, Armed Police Force, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) and its own staff for the swift response. All the injured passengers have gone home after treatment, the airline said, and it promised full cooperation with investigators.
A high-level technical team arrived at Bhadrapur on Saturday morning, led by CAAN Director General Deo Chandra Lal Karn. Officials from the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation came along, as did Buddha Air engineers carrying the technical equipment they needed. The team is assessing what caused the overrun.
Bhadrapur is a key domestic gateway in eastern Nepal and handles both ordinary passenger traffic and tourism.
