Pilot, co-pilot laid their lives for us, say passengers

Onlinekhabar Friday, February 26, 2016

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Kathmandu, February 26

Pilot Dinesh Neupane and Co-pilot Santosh Rana of a plane bound for Jumla from Nepalgunj died in a crash at Chilkhaya VDC-2, Kalikot district, on Friday afternoon. But nine passengers on board the flight survived. The survivors said the pilot and the co-pilot sacrificed their lives to save their lives.

After the plane’s engine failed, the pilot and the co-pilot tried to make an emergency landing. It’s impossible to fly a single-engine plane for long after the engine fails.

The pilot and the co-pilot of the plane (belonging to Kasthamandap Airlines) tried to make an emergency landing on the field. Unluckily, the plane crashed while landing. According to eyewitnesses, the plane’s frontal part got buried in the field, killing the pilot and the co-pilot.

But the passengers survived. Of the survivors, Laxman Khadka is in a critical condition, while others have suffered injuries.

The injured passengers said the pilot and the co-pilot sacrificed their lives for the sake of passengers. Passenger Megh Raj Giri said: The pilot died, but saved us.

“The captain goes down with the ship,” is an idiom that reflects a maritime tradition in which a sea captain holds ultimate responsibility for his ship and everyone on board, and he will die trying to save either of them. The young pilot and the co-pilot lived up to that ideal.

It’s difficult to make emergency landing on this (Nepalgunj-Jumla) route, according to Simrik Air’s Pilot Binod Giri. “During emergency landing, the plane has to be put on landing gear and it has to be able to roll,” Puri told Onlinekhabar. “Making a landing during engine failure and saving passengers’ lives is a great feat. The pilot and co-pilot died. That’s sad.”