A Bangladeshi aircraft carrying 67 passengers and four crew members has crashed as it was landing at Kathmandu airport in Nepal.
The US-Bangla Airlines plane slipped off the runway as it was landing and fell down a slope, sliding for about 300 metres before it stopped on a football pitch, leaving a trail of twisted metal, paper and luggage along the burnt grass.
Nepali police said at least 40 were killed and 23 injured, with several others still unaccounted for.
Firefighters battled to extinguish the burning wreckage and rescue passengers as plumes of black smoke rose above the site, to the east of the airport’s runway.
At least 24 badly burned bodies, some covered with cloth and others in partially sealed body bags, could be seen laid out beside the charred frame of the plane.
Live footage posted on Facebook showed the towering columns of smoke rising behind the runway, as emergency vehicles appeared to be heading into the smoke.
Amanda Summers, an American who works in Nepal, watched the crash happen from the terrace of her home office, not far from the airport.
“It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains,” she told AP. She said it was unclear if it had reached the runway when it landed. “All of a sudden there was a blast and then another blast,” she said.
An official from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said the 78-seat aircraft had approached its designated runway from the wrong direction.
“The aircraft was permitted to land from the southern side of the runway flying over Koteshwor, but it landed from the northern side,” Sanjiv Gautam told the Kathmandu Post. “We are yet to ascertain the reason behind the unusual landing.”
The Nepali prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, tweeted that he was “extremely shocked” by the incident.
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