A single-engine aircraft belonging to Makalu Air made a force landing at a river in Simikot on Thursday afternoon, after encountering engine failure. No casualty has been reported. 

The Cessna Caravan that took off for Surkhet from Simikot reported engine failure on the sky at 3:45pm and made a force-landing after nine minutes at Karnali River of Rauterana in the district, said Devendra KC, spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). “There were no passengers on board the aircraft,” he added.

Captain Sange Lama and co-pilot Prashant Shah, who sustained minor injuries due to force landing, have been airlifted to Simikot by a helicopter.  

The plane with call sign 9N-AKC has now been swept away downstream and crossed Kharpunath Temple in the area, locals said.

Captain Lama said that after encountering some technical glitches, they tried flying back. But the attempt failed and resulted in crash-landing of the aircraft in the river.

The plane was carrying cargo after government issued order to halt passenger charter flights by single-engine planes in early March.

14 accidents so far in Humla

A total of 14 accidents have been recorded in Humla since the inception of air service in the district. However, human casualty in the accidents is minimal.

According to CAAN, there have been 101 big and small plane accidents in Nepal since 1955.

In March, the government issued a ban on single engine aircraft from transporting human following a crash-landing of Air Kasthamandap’s P-750 XSTOL plane on February 26, in which two pilots were killed. The Makalu

Single-engine aircraft have a history of more than 50 years in Nepal. There are five single-engine aircraft currently operating in Nepal. Goma Air and Makalu Air have two each and Kasthamandap Air has one.