Kathmandu (dpa) - The pilot of a Nepalese passenger plane that crashed into a mountain reported a problem with a warning light as he was about to land and decided to divert the plane, the Civil Aviation Authority said Tuesday.
Prabhu Saran Pathak, who died in Monday's crash in north-western Nepal, told air traffic control that he feared the wheels of his Dornier Do228 turboprop might not unlock because of the problem, the aviation regulator said.
The flight was about to land at Jomsom in the Mustang district, 360 kilometres north-west of Kathmandu, when Pathak decided to return to Pokhara, where the Agni Air flight carrying 21 people originated. As the German-made plane was making a sharp turn, its wing and nose hit a mountain near Jomsom airport, the authority said.
Six on board survived: an Indian man, two Indian children, a Danish couple and a Nepali flight attendant.
All but the Indian man were in stable condition at a Pokhara hospital. Tirumala Kidambi Sreekanth was in critical condition.
The plane had been chartered by a local travel agency. Most of those on board were Indian nationals who were going to the Hindu temple of Muktinath in Jomsom, which is also a gateway to a number of trekking routes.
Nepal has a poor air safety record. Seventy-one air crashes have been reported in the mountainous country's aviation history, which began in 1953, according to government statistics. More than 600 people have died in the crashes.
Monday's accident was the fifth in the Jomsom region.
dpa pt lns ses
Author: Pratibha Tuladhar
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