The manager of Kathmandu Airport in Nepal said Wednesday that all 227 people aboard a Turkish Airlines A330 are safe after the aircraft “somehow missed the runway and ended up in the grassland area.” Birenda Prasad Shrestha told AFP that the plane was on its second attempt to land at the airport. Officials refuted earlier reports that dense fog shrouded the high-altitude airport, saying the visibility was “OK” at the time of the incident, although social media photos show the damaged aircraft shrouded in fog. “The plane had permission to land and while conditions were foggy earlier, visibility was OK,” Nepalese aviation official Prasad Chudal told AFP. “We are not sure how this happened.” Other reports also said the aircraft left the runway and ended up on the grass.
Social media photos show the aircraft nose-down on the grass with its main gear mired in mud. The aircraft was on a flight from Istanbul. The accident closed the airport, which is Nepal’s only international field. The airport will be closed until at least 4 p.m. local time Thursday. The Nepalese government has formed a four-person panel to investigate the accident.
