Horrifying details from Nepal's Kathmandu airport crash emerge: 'Pilot didn't obey ATC, landed at wrong time'

Kathmandu: The pilot of the US-Bangla Airlines plane that crashed at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal on Monday did not obey orders from the air traffic control (ATC), the airport authority said. As many as 49 of the 71 people on board died, according to latest reports.[caption id="attachment_4387215" align="alignleft" width="380"] The US- Bangladesh plane which crashed in Kathmandu on Monday. AP[/caption]Raj Kumar Chhetri, general manager at Tribhuvan International Airport, said the ATC, which monitors and regulates the traffic at the airport, asked pilot of the aircraft to await landing. The flight originated from Dhaka.“The pilot did not obey orders given by ATC and landed at wrong time. Also, the plane was to land from the southern side of the runway, but the pilot tried landing from the northern side,” Chhetri told Firstpost.Manoj Nepune, the Kathmandu Police spokesperson confirmed over the phone that 14 people among the dead were of Nepalese nationality. They'd gone to Dhaka for training from different Nepal travel agencies.An airport official confirmed that among the 67 flyers, 32 were Bangladeshis, 33 were Nepalese, one each from China and Maldives, apart from four crew members.PS Thakur, spokesperson of Tribhuvan International Airport, said the aircraft circled the airport twice before suddenly descending on the runway without informing the ATC.Meanwhile, Nepal prime minister KP Sharma Oli reached the airport to take stock of the situation and assured all possible help to victims of the crash.The injured were taken to Norvic Hospital in Thapathali and to Army Hospital in Kathmandu, Chettri added.Birendra KM is a Kathmandu-based journalist and Saurabh Sharma is a Lucknow-based journalist. Both are members of 101reporters.com, a pan-India network of grassroot reporters