observing the remains of what had once been a beechcraft 1900d on the slopes of kot danda… makes one grave, reflective, trying to conjecture what might have gone so horribly wrong... and what was happening in those last micro seconds of the fatal flight on 25 september 2011?
could the passengers have been talking about their disappointment at not being able to see the himalayan peaks, mt. everest? maybe beginning to plan on what to do the rest of day? where to go sightseeing? which temples to visit? which shopping complex to visit? or whether to try their luck the next day on another mountain flight?
ninety seconds before touchdown. the "we will be landing shortly, please keep your seats upright , and stow away your tables…" tape must have been playing. the air hostess must also have buckled herself in, after ensuring others had done the same... those passengers with cameras, must have been craning their necks against their windows for the time when the aircraft would break through the clouds, so that they could capture scenes of the kathmandu valley floor.
and just then, what the pilots must have also seen from their windows , the passengers must have suddenly seen the ground, and trees rushing up towards them. and then… darkness. cfit.. controlled flight into terrain...probably proving once again what many in nepal's aviation sector say, 'nepali clouds have rocks in them.' nineteen lives tragically snuffed out.
the buddha air mountain flight crashed into the northern flanks of kot danda. it was flying too far southeast and too low... inside clouds. why? the black box recordings will surely unravel the question. the aircraft's wreckage lies strewn over a small area in the slope in three main chunks-- the cockpit and cabin belly up and open on a small mound, the tail and luggage portion further below, and the burnt up fuel tank portion in between.
the pictures and text below try to piece together what might have happened, and also what went through my mind as i went about capturing what i saw through the camera lens...
the pictures and text below try to piece together what might have happened, and also what went through my mind as i went about capturing what i saw through the camera lens...
i must've flown the aircraft, buddha air's 9N-AEK, many times. but i used to spot it in the parking bay even at other times... a sleek beechcraft 1900D.. (this picture was taken 16th january 2010)
this one i took while on a buddha air ATR on 28 may 2010, the 9N-AEK, which was being refuelled, can be seen below the wing. i had taken this picture to show how dangerously crowded the parking bay had become.
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| if it had been a clear mountain viewing day, like this one, the plane would have been heading for the airport in this manner... (this picture was taken from kot in 2008) |
instead, the weather the plane ran into while entering the valley on 25th september, was more like this.. (taken in 2010).. whiteout in very low cloud ceiling...
time will tell what actually happened.. but the result was that what was touted as the 'best mountain flight in the world' ended up like this...
less than an hour ago before the crash, 16 passengers and 3 crew had boarded the craft on these steps, now upside down along with the cabin ...
... the air hostess must've walked down the aisle offering sweets and cotton... a passenger must've been looking out of this window, trying to get a glimpse of mountains hidden behind a curtain of clouds...
if this had been a clear day with blue cloudless skies, that passenger would've been treated to this kind of view of the snowy mountains from the window.. picture below, of course, is of the ganesh himal range which i took on a flight to pokhara a few years ago.
the kathmandu post of 25 september 2011 amidst buddha air brochures and a flattened minute maid mango juice... was anyone reading the paper when the plane hit kot danda? strange to think that the next day's headlines would be the crash itself....
orphaned sandal and shoe, lie alongside stacks of disposable plastic cups, near the roadside...
the sandal's pair lies in the mound above... next to the headphones worn by either of the pilots.
a black shoe, that perhaps the air hostess was wearing?
a bit of seat belt that must have secured a passenger to his/her seat in preparation for landing .. just a bit more than a minute away...
an opened peanut packet that must have slipped off a passenger's body while it was being loaded to a helicopter
... wonder who was occupying seat number 2c...
a landing gear that didn't get the opportunity to be used one more time
i've always been fascinated by the beechcraft 1900D's winglets, that had the airline name painted on them.. over the years I've taken so many pictures of them in various backdrops...
... against mountains up close
...or afar...
....by sunset's ruddy rays...
... or silhouetted against a dusky horizon...
... or juxtaposed next to kot danda...
... and now... a dirtied and injured winglet on a terrace in kot danda...
we three siblings, daji, sandaji and myself, did a bit of investigation on our own to try to fathom what might have happened in the micro seconds before the crash. about 50 metres below the wreckage we first found that some trees had their tops clipped. the main top branch of the uttis tree on the right had been nicked, as had a few small branches of the bakaino tree to its left (in the centre below). 
since the height where the branches of the uttis had been chopped was more than that of the bakaino, we conjectured that the plane must have been banking right
since the height where the branches of the uttis had been chopped was more than that of the bakaino, we conjectured that the plane must have been banking right
close up of where the uttis branches had been nicked...
... and the bakaino branches...
one of the lopped off branches that i found below the tree
twenty metres to the south west of these trees and two to three metres below the level of the clipped off branches, on a baari kanla (terrace) is the first sign of impact of the wing tips on the wet soil. that could be where the winglet dropped off...
next, the right wing seems to have chopped off two lapsi trees...
the dent on the wing is probably where it impacted with those trees ...
the dent on the wing is probably where it impacted with those trees ...
the right propeller seems to have disintegrated right after the trees were chopped off... they lie next to the manure heap
the impact with the trees must have twisted the aircraft, and this dent in the kanla is probably where the fuselage impacted the ground
the plane then seems to have sliced away this toilet... just above the forest line...
jarred to a halt at full speed, the aircraft then seems to have broken into three or more bits. the central portion of the craft, where the fuel tanks were, is what seems to have exploded some minutes after the thud of the impact. villagers nearby later talked about two sounds... an earthshaking thud, which they thought was another quake.. and then a very loud explosion later on. it was the smell of the burning fuel that wafted up teh dense fog to their houses on the ridge that alerted the villagers that something was amiss...
the main cabin portion seems to have somersaulted twenty metres up and rammed itself on a mound above the road, belly ripped apart, and facing the sky. the reason that the passengers' bodies were largely intact with just trauma injuries, and no burns was because the cabin was separated in this manner from the rest of the craft. below is the rammed up cockpit portion...
bundles of wires heading down from the cockpit area.. meant to control the craft...
a dragon fly perches delicately near the cockpit portion of the wreckage
behind the cockpit, the cabin portion lay sloping on the mound.. this one as seen from the bottom ... this oxygen mask had no takers...
... and this view from the side...
a little bit to the side, is a view of the kathmandu valley... and somewhere in that haze, is the airport that the pilots probably thought they were approaching with a wide turn to allow space and time for traffic lined up ahead
a seat that somebody sat on, and a bit of carpet that they trod on... and part of an engine cover, perhaps?
while the innards of one engine lies entangled in wire mesh fencing on the road between the mound where the cabin landed and the terrace where part of the fuselage burned....
the tail and luggage portion was left behind in the terrace below... comparatively more intact than the cabin section.
the double bird insignia on the tail, just mangled a bit...
... the other engine seems to have catapulted about 40 metres to the north west and fell by the wayside...
the double bird insignia on the tail, just mangled a bit...
there was no need for luggage in a mountain flight.. the hatch yawns open, though...
a bit of the left propeller and the wheel lay on the side...
a meter that's frozen at a little bit above 4 x 100 psi
another winged creature lands rests atop the fallen tail...
... before it flits off to a ripped, and a bit singed portion nearby, amidst shadows of fern and grass...
the trajectory of the crash site seen from above the wreckage... suryabinayak ridge , and then the lamatar ridge, which are lower than kot danda ridge into which the aircraft slammed...
a yeti airlines heading for the airport that can be seen to the right... in the front is the ground where the helicopters landed to transport the bodies to kathmandu... trees were chopped down to make the manouvre possible.
the mark left by the helicopter on what was then soggy ground
a buddha air flight buzzes past on its way to tribhuvan international airport... if only the sky had been this colour on 25th september...
just then we see a plane bearing down towards us... a twin otter... it seemed to be on the same trajectory as the ill-fated flight... and nearly as low...
it was a nepal airlines 'tourist' twin otter (9N-ABU).. probably flying by to get a close look at the crash site... the plane was too close for comfort as it swiftly droned by.. sending chills up the spine...
r.i.p.
