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19 killed in Mount Everest plane crash
- Thread starter JayGoliath
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Terrible. They were almost back to Kathmandu.
My wife and I started a backpacking trip in Nepal by taking a flight to a village in the Khumbu region. The airstrip there is on the side of a mountain, with a significant slope, which helped the acceleration during takeoffs and decelerations during landings. The downside is that there was no room for error, one end of the runway was a dropoff and the other end was a rock wall.
The only other passengers were six Sherpa ladies (with bags of stuff from Kathmandu) and a monk. Before takeoff, the stewardess offered us hard candies and cotton balls on a tray. The Sherpa women were passing around a flask and putting cotton in their ears. From our seat, we could see straight ahead into the cockpit and through the windshield of the plane since the curtain divider was open.
It was very cloudy and the ride was a bit bumpy until we got over the last ridge and were approaching the airstrip which was halfway up the mountain across the valley. Then it got extremely bumpy. The plane started bucking up and down, and a chorus of screaming began. I could see a little vertical line on the dark mountain ahead which was the airstrip, but it kept moving out of view upward, downward, to the right and left. The screaming continued nonstop, despite the monk's attempts to calm everyone, and my wife and I were regretting not putting some cotton in our ears, too. But we were also scared.
The plane kept bucking and several of the women seated behind me actually reached forward and grasped onto the fleece jacket I was wearing, holding tightly and still screaming, sorta pinning me to my seat. Maybe they thought they could escape unharmed with me? I don't know.
The airstrip got much larger in the windshield, but didn't stop moving around. It seems like the pilot made the plane stall, and the stall alarm went off right before we made a hard bump, a few tipping bounces, hard braking uphill, and a final fishtail of the plane not far from the rock wall at the end of the runway. The screaming stopped and we all disembarked, gathered our gear, and continued our journeys.
That evening my wife and I took a little hike completely around the airstrip. Below the dropoff end of the airstrip, concealed in the bushes, were some big pieces of airplane fuselage (with the airline logo covered by spray paint).
My wife and I started a backpacking trip in Nepal by taking a flight to a village in the Khumbu region. The airstrip there is on the side of a mountain, with a significant slope, which helped the acceleration during takeoffs and decelerations during landings. The downside is that there was no room for error, one end of the runway was a dropoff and the other end was a rock wall.
The only other passengers were six Sherpa ladies (with bags of stuff from Kathmandu) and a monk. Before takeoff, the stewardess offered us hard candies and cotton balls on a tray. The Sherpa women were passing around a flask and putting cotton in their ears. From our seat, we could see straight ahead into the cockpit and through the windshield of the plane since the curtain divider was open.
It was very cloudy and the ride was a bit bumpy until we got over the last ridge and were approaching the airstrip which was halfway up the mountain across the valley. Then it got extremely bumpy. The plane started bucking up and down, and a chorus of screaming began. I could see a little vertical line on the dark mountain ahead which was the airstrip, but it kept moving out of view upward, downward, to the right and left. The screaming continued nonstop, despite the monk's attempts to calm everyone, and my wife and I were regretting not putting some cotton in our ears, too. But we were also scared.
The plane kept bucking and several of the women seated behind me actually reached forward and grasped onto the fleece jacket I was wearing, holding tightly and still screaming, sorta pinning me to my seat. Maybe they thought they could escape unharmed with me? I don't know.
The airstrip got much larger in the windshield, but didn't stop moving around. It seems like the pilot made the plane stall, and the stall alarm went off right before we made a hard bump, a few tipping bounces, hard braking uphill, and a final fishtail of the plane not far from the rock wall at the end of the runway. The screaming stopped and we all disembarked, gathered our gear, and continued our journeys.
That evening my wife and I took a little hike completely around the airstrip. Below the dropoff end of the airstrip, concealed in the bushes, were some big pieces of airplane fuselage (with the airline logo covered by spray paint).
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Flying in Nepal can be exciting. It's a little different than commercial air travel in the US.
It was a Buddha Air filght that went down. Here is a shot we took of their check-in counter at Bhairahwa Airport.
It was a Buddha Air filght that went down. Here is a shot we took of their check-in counter at Bhairahwa Airport.
Very sad news. I too have flown in these tiny planes in the Himalayas in the past - will be thinking twice before boarding one of these anytime soon, they're falling off the sky like dead flies. Last year another such plane crashed in Eastern Nepal killing all the occupants, most of whom happened to be from the same family in Bhutan traveling on a pilgrimage trip. Around the same time Buddha Air had just started flying from Bhutan to Nepal (the first non-Bhutanese airline operator to fly this route) and they went all out saying they had the best safety record of the small Nepalese operators - none of their planes had crashed, etc. Still it wasn't enough for the Bhutanese who stuck to using their national carrier (Druk Air) for trips to Nepal and Buddha Air stopped flying this route. Sadly, with this latest crash, they (or other small operators) won't be back here anytime soon.
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I remember the time I went for a helicopter ride in Cuba back in the 1990's. For $20 they took us up in this old russian gunship. The chopper looked like it had come out from a museum it was so old and worn. The large door would not close which provided a great view, albeit abit scary for anyone afraid of heights. It took a long time for the chopper to spool up before it took off, very noisy.
He flew us over the hotel and along the shoreline for about 20 minutes. It was a ride I will never forget and worth the 20 bucks. I don't think there was much done for safety, they seemed to just fill it with fuel and add oil and go.
He flew us over the hotel and along the shoreline for about 20 minutes. It was a ride I will never forget and worth the 20 bucks. I don't think there was much done for safety, they seemed to just fill it with fuel and add oil and go.