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Saurya Airlines Flight FER
	9N-AME, the aircraft involved in the accident, seen in 2019 in a previous livery
Accident
Date	24 July 2024
Summary	Crashed shortly after take-off, under investigation
Site	Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Bombardier CRJ200LR
Operator	Saurya Airlines
ICAO flight No.	SAU-FER
Registration	9N-AME
Flight origin	Tribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal
Destination	Pokhara International Airport, Pokhara, Nepal
Occupants	19
Passengers	16
Crew	3
Fatalities	18
Injuries	1
Survivors	1

On 24 July 2024, a Bombardier CRJ200LR operated by Saurya Airlines, as a repositioning flight, crashed shortly after take-off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 18 out of 19 people on board.^[2]^[3] The aircraft was being ferried to Pokhara with mainly airline technical staff for a base maintenance check.^[4]^[5]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved was a Bombardier CRJ200LR,^[5] registered as 9N-AME with manufacturer serial number 7772. It was built by Bombardier Aviation in 2003 and powered by two General Electric CF34-3B1 engines.^[1]^[6] The aircraft was first delivered to Atlantic Coast Airlines and then entered into service with Saurya Airlines, then known as Kuber Airlines, in 2017.^[6]

In the months leading up to the accident, the aircraft underwent several maintenance events, including a survey inspection on March 13, 2024, for the renewal of its Certificate of Airworthiness, with the main landing gear's Time Between Overhauls (TBO) due on April 17, 2024. The TBO was extended until June 19, 2024. On April 26, 2024, a Flight Release Certificate was issued, allowing a test flight to renew the expired airworthiness certificate. After the TBO extension expired, the aircraft was grounded and sent to short-term storage. On July 24, 2024, the aircraft underwent a Return to Service check before being cleared for the ferry flight to Pokhara.^[5]

Passengers and crew

The plane was carrying two crew and according to some sources, 16 technicians employed to conduct routine maintenance on the aircraft.^[2] One passenger on the flight was a child. ^[5]

The captain of the flight, 35-year-old Manish Shakya, had an airline transport pilot licence (ATPL) and had 6,186 flight hours in total, 4,992 of which on the CRJ-200. The first officer, 26-year-old Sushant Katuwal, had a commercial pilot licence (CPL) and he had 1,824 flight hours in total, 1,602 of which on the CRJ-200. A third crew member was serving as an engineer, Yemeni Aref Reda.^[5]^[2]^[7]^[8]

Nationality	Passengers	Crew	Total	Fatalities	Survivors
Nepali	16	2	18	17	1
Yemeni	—	1	1	1	—
Total	16	3	19	18	1

Accident

The aircraft had been parked in a remote parking bay for 34 days prior to the accident.^[5] A return-to-service inspection was conducted on the morning of the flight.^[3] According to the load and trim sheet provided by the company, the take-off weight was calculated as 18,132 kilograms. The decision speed (V₁), rotation speed (V_R), and takeoff safety speed (V₂) were determined to be 114, 118, and 125 knots, respectively.^[3]^[5]

At 11:04:35 Nepal Standard Time (NPT, UTC+05:45), the pilots initiated taxi to the runway 02/20. The aircraft entered runway 02, backtracked and began the take-off roll at 11:10:34 NPT. Immediately after takeoff, the aircraft rolled to the right, then sharply banked to the left, followed by another right roll, before right wingtip stuck the ground.^[5] One airport official reported hearing "cracking noises" emanating from the aircraft just before the crash.^[9] This impact triggered a fire, and fuselage of the aircraft slid into a 130-foot gorge located east of the runway, between an aircraft hangar and a radar station.^[10] The firefighters arrived on the scene one minute after the impact.^[5] Footage of the incident showed firefighters extinguishing the blaze while attempting to rescue survivors.^[2] Civil aviation officials later reported that the cockpit was separated by the main fuselage by a freight container just before the main body struck the ground. The cockpit became lodged in the container, while rest of the aircraft continued to slide further down the gorge.^[11]

The latest METAR report indicated a visibility of 8 km, with few clouds at 1,000 feet, and scattered clouds at 3000 feet above ground level.^[3]^[12] However, the Associated Press reported that visibility was low across Kathmandu at the time of the accident.^[12]

Out of the 19 people on board, 18 people were killed in the crash.^[13]^[7]^[8] The captain was the only survivor and was transported to Kathmandu Medical College with non-life-threatening injuries.^[9]^[14]^[12]

Aftermath

Tribhuvan International Airport was temporarily shut down following the disaster.^[2] Saurya Airlines suspended all flights following the accident.^[15] Three passengers survived the impact but died later in the hospital.^[16] The bodies of the victims were taken to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu for autopsies.^[12] The captain was rescued "within five minutes of the crash," and received head and facial injuries, and fractured bones in his back.^[11]

Investigation

Both flight recorders of the aircraft were recovered from the crash site and were sent to the Transport Safety Investigation Bureau of Singapore for analysis, under supervision of Nepal's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC) and with representatives from Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the National Transportation Safety Board of the United States.^[5]

Preliminary report

On 5 September, the AAIC released the preliminary report on the crash. Based on data from the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, the aircraft rotated excessively during takeoff at 11:10:55 NPT, briefly pitching up at a rate of 8.6° per second.^[a] The aircraft reached a maximum height of just 100 ft (30 m) above ground level at 11:11:03 NPT seven seconds before the right wingtip impacted the ground. The stick shaker activated multiple times within an eight second timespan between 11:10:58 and 11:11:04 NPT.^[5]

The preliminary report also highlighted oversights at the airline that were deemed critical. The report revealed how Saurya Airlines was not complying with the proper procedures for loading aircraft, including properly securing loads and weighing loads. Additionally, it was also shown that the airline did not properly obtain permissions for flying the accident flight.^[5]