Plane skids off runway in Nepal, airport closed for 12-hours

Press Trust of India  |  Kathmandu 

A domestic aircraft skidded off the recently repaired runway of Nepal's international airport, halting all the flights for some 12-hours that left thousands of people stranded, officials said Sunday.

The Jetstream 41 was carrying 21 passengers from to

The incident disrupted all airport services, including international flights. However, no human casualty has been reported, the report said, adding that the airport resumed its normal operations on Sunday, 12-hours after the incident.

The incident comes amid mounting safety concerns over cracks on the runway's surface, which was repaired only recently.

The latest incident is one of the many plane accidents that has witnessed in recent years.

In March, a to flight, with 67 passengers and four crew members on board, caught fire after it careened off the runway and ploughed into a football ground near the airport, killing 51 people.

In April, all 139 people on board a Malaysian passenger plane had a miraculous escape when the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight skidded off the runway and got stuck in mud while attempting to take off from the airport.

Nepal's only international airport lies in a narrow bowl-shaped valley with the Himalayas to the north, making it a challenging place to land.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Sun, September 02 2018. 16:15 IST