Summit Air Flight 409

On May 27, 2017, Summit Air flight 409, a Let L-410, crashed short of the runway threshold whilst attempting landing at Tenzing–Hillary Airport in Nepal. It was on final approach to Lukla's runway 06 at about 1404 Local Time when the aircraft contacted a tree short of the runway and subsequently contacted ground about 3 meters/10 feet below the runway level. The aircraft slid down the slope before coming to a rest about 200 meters below the runway level. The captain and the first officer died as result of the accident, another crew member received injuries. At the time of the accident, local visibility was substantially reduced by ground fog. The up-slope runway 06 is an all visual runway without any instrument approach guidance.^[1]

Aircraft

The aircraft involved by the crash was a Let L-410, built in 2014 for Summit Air (then operating as Goma), registration 9N-AKY. The aircraft was involved in a prior incident on 2 June 2015, where the flight from Jomsom landed in Pokhara without the nose gear. All 18 passengers on board the Let 410 aircraft were safe, but the aircraft 9N-AKY suffered damage in the nose wheel part.^[2]

Crew

The Captain, Paras Rai, aged 48, had over 9000 flight hours logged, and since joining the airline, has flown over 1900 hours on the L-410 aircraft. He died shortly after being pulled from the wreckage.

The co-pilot, Shreejan Manandhar, died on 2130 Local Time after 8 hours in intensive care at Lukla Hospital.

Air hostess Pragya Maharjan survived the crash and was soon medically evacuated to Kathmandu for further treatment.^[3]

Incident

The aircraft was on final approach into Runway 06 of the Tenzing-Hillary airport, on a routine flight from Kathmandu Airport when it descended below the minimum safety altitude just off the runway and impacted with a tree and contacted ground soon 3 meters below the runway. It then slid over 200 meters down a ravine. CCTV footage released by the airport supports that claim, showing the plane dipping below the runway level and smoke coming from the wreckage. Witnesses stated that the weather condition had been foggy, and the visibility was quite low. The airport does not possess any sort of navigational equipment, and is a visuals only airport requiring pilots to land via visual approach.^[4][1]

References