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According to aviation friends, a passenger plane crashed at Kathmandu Airport in Nepal this morning (July 24). All news reports only said "plane crashed", "19 people on board", "flying to Pokhara" and "Saurya Company", but no information about the aircraft model was given.

After comparing various pictures, Mr. La believed that the crashed plane might be the CRJ-200 aircraft with the license plate number 9N-ANM.

Figure: Previous images of 9N-ANM from the Internet

Figure: Picture of the crash site Photo: See watermark

Saurya is a small regional airline with only two CRJ-200 aircraft under its name, namely 9N-ANM and 9N-AME. The two aircraft have different paint schemes, the former is red and the latter is green, which matches the green color at the crash site.

CRJ-200 is a regional jet produced by Bombardier.ARJ21-700Similar. Small regional jets are not profitable, and the CRJ series has been discontinued. my country's CRJ-200 has also been retired. The CRJ-200 is usually equipped with 50 people. This time, it was said that there were 19 people on board, but it is not clear whether it was "19 passengers" or the crew. Usually this type of aircraft is equipped with 2 pilots and at least 1 flight attendant.

Saurya's two CRJ-200s are not too old. The one that had the accident was previously in service with J-Air, a subsidiary of Japan Airlines. It is now 18.9 years old, which is considered "middle-aged" abroad. The aircraft was introduced in August 2020 and was leased by Saurya from a US company.

We haven't seen the video of the accident yet, but it seems that the plane ran off the runway at high speed during takeoff, fell down the slope, and broke into several pieces. There is very little flat land in Nepal, and the Kathmandu airport is built on the mountainside. The southern end is raised, so there is a slope. The plane took off at a speed of nearly 300 kilometers per hour, so there is little hope for the crew to survive.

The cause of the accident is still hard to speculate. In history, such accidents are sometimes related to tire blowouts. In 2022, a passenger plane also ran off the runway at high speed during takeoff at an airport in my country. It was said that the pilot picked up a mobile phone and caused it.