• The incident highlights Nepal’s poor air safety record, with nearly 360 people killed in plane and helicopter crashes since 2000.
• The 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft, operated by Saurya Airlines, crashed during take-off at Kathmandu’s airport.
• A government panel to investigate the crash will submit its report within 45 days.

Relatives of the 18 victims in the Nepal plane crash have not received any information from the government or the airline about the cause of the disaster. They expressed their concerns a day after the small jet crashed during take-off at Kathmandu’s airport, the capital.

The incident has highlighted the mountainous, landlocked nation’s poor air safety record, with nearly 360 people killed in plane and helicopter crashes since 2000.

The 50-seater CRJ-200 aircraft that crashed this week, operated by Saurya Airlines, was transporting 15 technicians, two crew members, and two family members of a technician to the central city of Pokhara for regular maintenance. The aircraft crashed in a field beside the runway and caught fire, with only the captain surviving.

“Nobody has contacted us,” said Krishna Bahadur Magar, a relative of Nava Raj Ale who was a ground handler at Saurya and died in the crash.

“Our relative was a member of the Saurya Airlines family,” Magar said. “Why is the airline now behaving as if they don’t care about him?”

On Thursday, Magar was among the dozens of people crowded into a narrow alley outside the forensic unit of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital, waiting for authorities to release the bodies of the dead. Some reported that doctors had informed them they would not receive the remains of their loved ones before Saturday. Additionally, bodies charred beyond recognition would need DNA tests for identification, a process that could take up to two weeks.

Jageswar Giri, whose brother-in-law Uddhab Puri died in the crash, said that the victims’ families felt as if Saurya officials were “deliberately hiding” from them.

“We want to know what technical problems the aircraft was facing, why so many people were on it yesterday, and why it was decided that maintenance work would be done in Pokhara instead of Katmandu where the plane was grounded,” he said.

Officials from the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) explained that the plane was being sent to Pokhara because its new airport had aircraft maintenance hangars. In response to the families’ questions, the regulator stated that coordinating with the families was the airline’s responsibility.

“It was not a passenger flight,” said CAAN spokesperson Gyanendra Bhul. “Saurya Airlines has officially said all people on board the plane were their staff, so they should coordinate with the family members.”

The airline did not respond to telephone calls and messages from Reuters seeking comment. A government panel, established on Wednesday to investigate the crash, will submit its report within 45 days. Nepal’s deadliest crash in 1992 claimed 167 lives. Last January, a Yeti Airlines plane crashed just before landing in Pokhara, killing 72 people.

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