Passengers 16 Fatalities 19 Aircraft type Beechcraft 1900D Number of deaths 19 | Crew 3 Survivors 0 Date 25 September 2011 Injuries (nonfatal) 0 | |
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Site Kotdanda, Lalitpur, Nepal Summary Controlled flight into terrain Destination Tribhuvan International Airport Locations Nepal, Lalitpur District, Kotdanda Similar 2011 Pointe‑Noire Trans Air, 2011 Avis Amur Antonov, 2011 United Nations B, 2011 Royal Moroccan Air Force, Aerocon Flight 238 | ||
Buddha Air Flight 103 was a sightseeing flight which crashed at Kotdada Hill, Nepal, on 25 September 2011. All 19 passengers and crew on board died. The aircraft involved, a Beechcraft 1900D, was operating a Buddha Air scenic flight to Mount Everest out of Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu. It crashed while attempting to land in bad weather.
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Passengers
The sixteen passengers included ten Indian nationals, one Japanese, two Americans and three Nepalese. All but one of the passengers and the three crew died at the scene of the accident; one Nepalese passenger was rescued but died on the way to hospital.
Aircraft
The aircraft was a 19-seat Beechcraft 1900D twin-engined turboprop airliner; it was thirteen years old and registered in Nepal as 9N-AEK. Initial investigations revealed that the aircraft was being operated under VFR (Visual Flight Rules); and two minutes before it was due to land it entered clouds and crashed at 5400 feet. Air traffic controllers and members of the investigation team claim the reason for the crash was pilot error.