Nepal Plane Overshoot: A Buddha Air aircraft had a close shave as the plane carrying around 50 passengers overshot a runway at Nepal's Bhadrapur Airport while landing on Friday, officials said. All aboard are safe and have been evacuated.

All passengers safe

The aircraft took off from Kathmandu carrying around 50 passengers. It slipped off the ground while attempting to land at Bhadrapur airport at around 9 pm, according to Tribhuvan International Airport spokesperson Rinji Sherpa.

The airplane overshot the runway by some 200 metres off the ground near a rivulet, suffering minor damage during the incident. All the passengers are safe and have been evacuated from the site, Sherpa told news agency PTI over the phone.

Nepal has a record of aviation disasters

Nepal has had a fraught record of aviation accidents, partly due to its sudden weather changes and airstrips located in hard-to-access rocky terrains. 

The same aircraft had encounter similar incident. Earlier in July 2024, Buddha Air ATR-72-212A overshoot the runway while landing in heavy rain at Siddharthanagar Gautam Buddha Airport in Nepal. None of the 55 passengers and 4 crew were injured.

Earlier in 2023, at least 32 people were killed when a Nepalese passenger plane with 72 people, including 10 foreigners, onboard crashed into a river gorge on January 15 while landing at the Pokhara airport and eight bodies have been recovered.

Later in 2024, a Nepalese private plane crashed and caught fire shortly after taking off from the Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 18 people aboard, including a child, and seriously injuring the pilot - the only survivor.

The Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft of Saurya Airlines, carrying 19 people, including two crew members and technical staff of the airline, was bound for Pokhara International Airport for regular maintenance service when the accident occurred at 11.11 am (local time).

(With inputs from agency)