Eighteen people have been killed in the crash of a regional passenger plane belonging to Nepal’s Saurya Airlines during takeoff from the capital, Kathmandu, officials say.

The plane crashed on Wednesday and caught fire. It was carrying two crew members and 17 technicians and was going for regular maintenance to the new airport in Pokhara, which opened in January and is equipped with aircraft maintenance hangars, they said.

“Shortly after takeoff … the aircraft veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway,” the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement.

Eighteen of those on board were Nepali citizens while one engineer was from Yemen, Saurya said.

“Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital,” said Tej Bahadur Poudyal, a spokesman for Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport.

Television images showed firefighters trying to put out the blaze and thick black smoke rising into the sky. They also showed the plane flying a little above the runway and then tilting to its right before it crashed.

Other visuals showed rescue workers rummaging through the charred remains of the plane, strewn in lush green fields, and bodies being carried to ambulances on stretchers as local residents looked on.

“The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday. … It is unclear why it crashed,” said Mukesh Khanal, head of marketing at Saurya Airlines.

Kathmandu airport was closed temporarily after the crash but reopened within hours, officials said.

A Saurya Airlines official said the plane was a 50-seat Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft.

Nepal has been criticised for a poor air safety record, exacerbated by many airports in the Himalayan country being located in remote hills and near peaks shrouded in clouds. Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 tallest mountains.

Located in the heart of the Kathmandu Valley, the country’s main airport is ringed by mountains, affecting wind directions and intensity in the area and making takeoffs and landings a challenge for pilots.

Nearly 350 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal since 2000. The deadliest incident occurred in 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus crashed into a hillside while approaching Kathmandu, killing 167 people.

Most recently, at least 72 people were killed in a Yeti Airlines crash in January 2023 that was later attributed to the pilots mistakenly cutting off power.