Runway confusion led to plane crash in Kathmandu

A runway confusion led to Monday's US-Bangla plane crash in Kathmandu, the deadliest aviation disaster in Bangladesh's history taking the death toll to 51.

The aircraft crash has killed 26 Bangladeshi citizens, including the four crew members of the US-Bangla Airlines, said an official of the Bangladesh Embassy in Nepal. A day after Bangladesh's worst airline disaster, the embassy has released the list of the casualties. It said that 32 Bangladeshi passengers were on board.

Two more injured passengers have succumbed to injuries on Tuesday, There were 71 passengers and crew on board the ill-fated aircraft when the incident occurred.

Radio communications of the Kathmandu tower controller show that despite being cleared to land on runway 02, the US-Bangla flight began deviating from its course, according to JACDEC, a German air safety website.

The captain and the tower controller discussed which runway the aircraft was aiming for, the website said. At one point, the controller told the woman co-pilot she was heading toward runway 20, although the aircraft had been cleared for runway 02.

Later, the captain took over the conversation and confirmed the plan to land at runway 02. At one stage, ground control said runway 20 had also been cleared for landing.

Eventually, the plane made an attempt to land on the runway it was originally meant to use, but crashed short of it, broke into pieces and caught fire. Both pilots are dead.

 "Amid much confusion, mostly on the part of the flight crew, the ultimate landing clearance on runway 02 was received," JACDEC said in its analysis. The crash occurred less than a minute after that. At the time, there was a light tailwind component of six to seven knots.

The 17-year-old Bombardier operated by US-Bangla Airlines was following a Boeing 737-800 of Jet Airways (a flight from Mumbai) that landed about three minutes ahead of the Bangladeshi aircraft on runway 02, according to JACDEC.

On Monday, Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport officials said they had asked the pilots if they faced a problem after the aircraft changed course in the final descent, but the pilots said they were not, according to a Reuters report.

The plane was then seen circling twice in a northeast direction, Reuters reported citing Raj Kumar Chettri, the airport's general manager. Traffic controllers again asked the pilot if things were OK, and he replied, "Yes".

The tower then told the pilot his alignment was not correct, but received no reply, Chettri added.

US-Bangla, however, defended Captain Abid Sultan, a former pilot of the Bangladesh Air Force, saying he had landed more than 100 times at Kathmandu, where wind shear and bird hits are frequent hazards.

Abid had more than 5,000 hours of flying experience and was specially trained to land at the airport, said airline spokesman Kamrul Islam.
The aircraft was delivered to US-Bangla in 2014. Its previous operators were Augsburg Airways, Royal Jordanian and Scandinavian Airlines.

A control room has been opened at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka to provide necessary information and counselling to the families of the victims of the US-Bangla Airlines plane crash.

A flight is carrying 46 passengers - all relatives of the Bangladeshis killed and rescued after the crash of a US-Bangla Airlines flight at Nepal  on Monday.

According to The Kathmandu Post, bodies of all 51 passengers who were killed in the US-Bangla plane crash have been taken to the Maharajgunj-based Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) in Kathmandu on Tuesday. According to Metropolitan Police Range, Kathmandu, the bodies were collected from various hospitals of Kathmandu and sent to the TUTH. Two separate committees have been formed to investigate the US-Bangla plane crash. In a report, the Kathmandu Tribune, said a six-member probe body was formed to investigate the crash.

Nepal's Minister for Population and Environment Lalbabu Pandit said the investigation committee was asked to submit the report at the earliest. On the other hand, US-Bangla Airlines has also formed its own probe committee to investigate the plane crash, US-Bangla Airline General Manager (marketing support and public relations) Md Kamrul Islam said in a press release.