Eyewitnesses have told how they heard the desperate 'wailing and screaming' of terrified passengers as a plane covered in flames crashed in the Nepalese capital killing seven Britons, it has emerged. The twin-engine aircraft, operated by domestic carrier Sita Air, was carrying trekkers to the Everest region and came down minutes after take-off near the Manohara River on the southwest edge of Katmandu killing 19 people in total.
Today, as a number of badly burned bodies lay just metres from the aircraft's shattered fuselage, bystanders described hearing desperate screams and flames coming from one of the plane's wings moments before it hit the ground at around 6.30am (00.45 GMT).
Housewife Tulasa Pokharel, 26, whose house is located just meters from the crash site, said she saw the plane with black smoke crash into an open space on the banks of Manohara river, according to myrepublica.com. She said: 'That time I could hear some people inside the plane wailing and screaming. When we went to inform the police and other locals about the incident and came back, there was just silence. We saw the plane burning and all of them dead.'
She told reporters: 'We could hear people inside the aircraft screaming, but we couldn't throw water at the plane to put out the fire because we were scared that the engines were about to explode.' 'The pilot tried his best to make an emergency landing. If he had managed it, then we could have rescued some of the passengers.'
The Dornier Aircraft 9N-AHA was just a kilometre away from the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu.
Airport authorities said that the pilot told them seconds before the crash how it had hit a bird.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it is looking 'urgently' into reports that seven Britons were killed in the disaster. The other passengers included five Chinese and three Nepalese trekkers, while the three crew members were from Nepal, said Katmandu airport chief Narayan Bastakoti. The pilot reported trouble shortly after leaving Kathmandu airport and appeared to have been trying to turn back, according to airport official Ratish Chandra Suman. The wrecked plane was pointing towards the airport area.
Investigators were trying to determine the cause of the crash and identify the bodies and Mr Suman said he could not confirm if the plane was already on fire before it crashed.
The weather in Kathmandu and surrounding areas was clear on Friday morning and it was one of the first flights to take off from Kathmandu's Tribhuwan International Airport. Other flights reported no problems, and the airport operated normally.
Mobile phone video shot by local people showed the front section of the plane was on fire when it first hit the ground and it appeared the pilot had attempted to land the plane on open ground beside the river. The fire quickly spread to the rear, but the tail was still in one piece at the scene near the Manohara River on the south-west edge of Kathmandu. Villagers were unable to approach the plane because of the flames and it took some time for firefighters to reach the area and bring the fire under control.
Decimated: Rescuers inspect the wreckage of a plane which crashed on the edge of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu minutes after take-off, killing seven British trekkers
Macabre clear-up: The victims are carried away from the scene by police rescuers who had tried to pull the bodies from the wreckage as firefighters battled the flames
Hundreds of rescuers, police and onlookers surrounded the burnt-out shell of the aircraft as they looked for bodies and documents to help identify the victims. The bodies were taken by vans to the hospital mortuary.
A police spokesman said: 'The pilots seem to have tried to land it safely on the banks of the river, but unfortunately the plane caught fire.' Firefighters brought the fire in the wreckage under control and police rescuers were trying to pull out the bodies, Bastakoti said.
Evidence: A rescue team member holds up bundles of money recovered from the plane. Soldiers and police also sifted through the wreckage to try to identify the victims
The plane was heading for Lukla, the gateway to Mount Everest. Thousands of Westerners head to the region around the world's highest peak every year for trekking trips. It was the sixth fatal air crash in Nepal in the last two years, with 76 lives lost in that period before Friday, raising fresh questions about the safety record of the country's numerous small airlines.
English mountaineer Alan Hinkes, who has been climbing in the Himalayas for more than 20 years, told the BBC that he had taken the flight from Kathmandu to Lukla many times previously, and that problems usually occurred at the Lukla end. He said: 'It is ironic that it has crashed in Kathmandu. You are usually worried about it happening at the other end.
'The landing strip in Lukla is a bit like an aircraft carrier with a mountain at the end of it, with a 1,000ft drop at the end of the runway. Normally crashes happen at that end.'
Mr Hinkes said it was unlikely the victims would have been planning to climb Everest, but were more likely to be trekkers or people attempting other mountains in the Everest region. He said: 'There is quite good weather in October and November for climbing the mountains around Everest.
'It is a bit worrying and upsetting. There are a lot of people and friends I know who go out at this time of year leading treks. 'It is quite alarming. I have lost a few friends in plane crashes in Nepal over the last 20 years. 'It is not the safest place to fly, I must admit, but it is what you have to do to get into the mountains.'
A spokeswoman for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: 'We understand that British nationals may be involved, and we are urgently seeking to confirm what has happened. 'Our embassy in Kathmandu is talking to the airline and local authorities to find out whether Britons were involved.'
Autumn is considered the best time to trek the foothills of the Himalayan peaks. The crash follows an avalanche on another Nepal peak Sunday that killed seven foreign climbers and a Nepali guide. And in May, 15 people were killed when their plane crashed into a hill in northwest Nepal.
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