Kathmandu - Namche Bazar

On November 19, 1998 at 03:38 PM, Kathmandu - Namche Bazar experienced a crash involving Pilatus PC-6 (Porter & Turbo Porter), operated by Royal Nepal Airlines, with the event recorded near Namche Bazar Sagarmatha.

The flight was categorized as positioning and the reported phase was landing (descent or approach) at a mountains crash site.

1 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The pilot, sole on board, departed Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport on a positioning flight to Namche Bazar to pick up passengers. During the pre-flight briefing, he was informed about the good weather conditions along the route and at destination. But en route, these conditions deteriorated and upon arrival, clouds were present up to 3,600 metres. He made several circuits expecting weather improvement. Few minutes later, he saw a hole in the clouds and initiated a descent when the aircraft struck the slope of Mt Kongri Himal located 3 km north of the airfield. The aircraft was destroyed and the pilot was killed.

Aircraft reference details include registration 9N-ABK, MSN 755, year of manufacture 1975.