The pilot who was the sole survivor of the Nepal plane crash earlier this week made it out alive after his cockpit broke off from the aircraft on impact — with harrowing photos showing rescuers pulling the bloodied captain to safety.
Captain Manish Ratna Shakya, the pilot of the doomed flight that left 18 dead, was pulled by rescuers from the front window of the cockpit Wednesday about five minutes after the plane went down near Kathmandu airport, the BBC reported.
“We broke the window and immediately pulled him out,” Senior Superintendent of Nepal Police Dambar Bishwakarma said.
“He had blood all over his face when he was rescued but we took him to the hospital in a condition where he could speak,” he added.
The Saurya Airlines plane crashed immediately after takeoff when it turned right and collided with the storage container at 11:11 am Wednesday.
The collision tore the cockpit off the small passenger plane and sent the rest of the flaming aircraft careening into a valley where it was “torn to pieces,” Nepal Civil Aviation minister Badri Pandey said.
The rest of the plane erupted in flames, making it impossible to rescue the other passengers.
“It hit the container on the edge of the airport… then, it fell further below,” Pandey said, “The cockpit, however, remained stuck inside the container. This is how the captain survived.”
A “very scared” Shakya was rescued within five minutes of the crash — and moments before flames engulfed the plane, the Nepali army said in a statement.
He was rushed Kathmandu Medical College Hospital, where he is under observation in the neurosurgery ward, hospital director Dr. Meena Thapa said.
He will require surgery to treat several broken bones in his back and suffered head and facial injuries.
“We have treated injuries on various parts of his body,” Thapa said.
Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli visited members of Shakya’s family in the hospital.
A panel has been formed to investigate the crash, a government spokesman said.
An initial assessment states that the cause of the crash was the plane taking a wrong turn, according to Tribhuvan International Airport Jagannath Niroula.
The plane’s co-pilot, who did not survive, Sasant Katuwal, had only been flying for the last three years, according to his uncle Dhyan Bahadur Khadka.
The Kathmandu airport is considered especially difficult for pilots since it is located in a valley and surrounded by mountains.
“As soon as it took off, it turned right, [when it] should have turned left,” Niraula said.
“I came out and saw a plane had crashed and there was a huge smoke and fire coming out, there was chaos and confusion,” said Kam Kumar Khatri Chetri, who witnessed the tragic scene unfold.
All 18 bodies have been recovered and identified.
Among the dead is a Yemeni national and a child.
Nepal is considered to have a poor air safety record in January 2023, 72 people died when Yeti Airlines pilots accidentally cut off power on their aircraft.
Nepal has had nearly 360 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes since 2000
