Sita Air Flight 601

Sita Air Flight 601

9N-AHA at Lukla Airport in September 2011
Accident summary
Date	28 September 2012 (2012-09-28)
Summary	Bird strike during climb out
Site	Madhyapur, Bhaktapur District, Nepal 27°40′50″N 85°21′22″E / 27.68056°N 85.35611°E / 27.68056; 85.35611Coordinates: 27°40′50″N 85°21′22″E / 27.68056°N 85.35611°E / 27.68056; 85.35611
Passengers	16
Crew	3
Fatalities	19
Survivors	0
Aircraft type	Dornier Do 228
Operator	Sita Air
Registration	9N-AHA
Flight origin	Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal
Destination	Tenzing-Hillary Airport, Lukla, Solukhumbu District, Nepal

Sita Air Flight 601 (ST601) was a Nepalese domestic passenger flight, operated by Sita Air, a Nepalese airliner with a Dornier 228 from Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital Kathmandu to Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, a popular tourist city in Nepal famous for trekking. On 28 September 2012, the Dornier Do 228 registered as 9N-AHA crashed while conducting an emergency landing to Kathmandu shortly after take off, killing all 19 people on board. Reports suggest that Flight 601 suffered a bird strike while taking off. Subsequent lost of control causing the plane to crash. It was the second deadliest air accident to occur in Nepal in 2012,^[1] and the last of at least ten fatal crashes since 2002.^[2]

Accident

Flight 601 took off from Tribhuvan International Airport at 06:17 local time. It was the first flight to depart from Tribhuvan International Airport. While on the altitude of 50 ft, the pilot reported technical issues with the aircraft, and requested to fly back to the airport.^[3] Flight crews reported to Kathmandu that the aircraft^[4][5] may have hit a vulture.^[6] This was noticed by Kathmandu's air traffic controller, as the aircraft began to sway and do unusual manoeuvres. Three minutes after take-off, on the way back to the airport, the aircraft descended near Manohara River. It then nose-dived, narrowly missed a slum and crashed on the banks of Manohara River and caught fire, with the front part of the fuselage completely destroyed. Witnesses recalled that passengers on board were waving their arms and screaming while the plane nose-dived^[3]

Immediately after the crash, Tribhuvan Airport's fire brigade were quickly deployed. Dozens of army personnel and rescue personnel rushed to the scene of the crash though some reports said the fire brigade took more than half-an hour. Eyewitnesses stated that several people survived the crash and were screaming for help inside the burning wreckage. Locals wanted to help but afraid that if they throw water onto the engine it might explode. When emergency services arrived at the crash site, most parts of the plane were completely destroyed. All 19 people on board perished in the accident.^[6]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the accident was a Dornier 228-202, registration 9N-AHA, serial number 8123; and was equipped with 2 2 Garrett TPE331-10T-511D. Before it was sold to Sita Air,^[7] it was acquired by Holiday Express in 1987. It later entered the Australian registration of VH-NSH and then the American registration of N2255E for G M Hock Construction. It was sold to Executive World Airways as F-ODZG and in 1990 it was sold to Air Caraïbes.^[8]

Passengers and crews

All 16 passengers and crews on board were killed in the crash, most of them were foreigners, which were travelling to Lukla for trekking in the Himalaya. The British Embassy in Nepal confirmed that at least 7 Britons were on the flight. The youngest British victim was 27 whilst the oldest was 60. At least 5 Chinese nationals and 7 Nepalis were on board the flight.^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Nationality	Fatalities		Total
	Passengers	Crew
Nepal	4	3	7
China	5	0	5
United Kingdom	7	0	7
Total	16	3	19

Investigation

The Nepal Civil Aviation Authority was ordered to investigate the crash with assistance from the British Air Accidents Investigation Branch. Investigators started to collect evidences related to the crash. Both the Flight Data Recorder (FDR) and the Cockpit Voice Recorder were recovered by rescue personnel after the crash and was subsequently handed over to the AIR safety investigators. During its take off roll, the weather in Tribhuvan was in good condition with good visibility. Based on interviews by eyewitnesses, the aircraft was on fire while it was crashing to the ground. A relative of Flight 601's co-pilot said he had warned that flights on the airline were routinely overloaded and that a nearby slum attracted birds to the runway. However, Sagar Acharya, the airline's head of flight safety, denied the aircraft was carrying too much weight. Most reports stated that the aircraft suffered a bird strike shortly after taking off from Tribhuvan. Conflicting reports stated that it had struck a black eagle, while others stated that it had hit a vulture. This bird strike report was confirmed by the air traffic controller on duty, as the air traffic controller stated that the pilot contacted Tribhuvan's Tower for an intention for emergency landing due to "technical glitches", possibly due to a bird strike. Based on the ATC statements, the right engine of Flight 601 might have been hit by a bird and caught fire. Investigators later focused on the bird strike theory. Bird strikes have been one of the biggest threats to passenger safety since the earliest days of aviation, with the first case reported by Orville Wright in 1905. It have been cited as a key factor in dozens of fatal plane crashes.^[3] Investigators later stated that the impact of the bird strike might have caused the pilot to become nervous. The aircraft later caught fire, and in an attempt to douse the fire, the pilot attempted an emergency landing on Manohara river, but somehow nose-dived and crashed onto the football ground.^[14]

See also

• Buddha Air Flight 103
• Caspian Airlines Flight 7908, similar crash in Iran that was caused by a bird strike that led to mechanical failure
• Nepal Civil Aviation Authority
• Transport in Nepal

Notes and references

External links

• Amateur video of the aftermath of the crash
• "Maintain trajectory". The Himalayan Times. 30 September 2012. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. 
• "Nepal plane crash: UK dead remembered". BBC News. 28 September 2012. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012.