An aircraft in Nepal carrying 78 passengers was forced to make an emergency landing after a fire warning indicated that there was a problem with one of the engines.
The Shree Airline plane was flying from Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in Kathmandu to Bhairahawa on Thursday, March 9, 2023, when the alert was raised. The crew immediately made the decision to return to Tribhuvan.
The Himalayan Times described the plane involved as a Dash 8 Q400 aircraft.
Just before 10am, the aircraft landed back in Kathmandu where an official from the airport confirmed that no fire had been found.
“The pilot reported an indication of fire in the right engine and the plane was diverted to Kathmandu immediately,” a spokesperson for Shree Airlines told Reuters.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has directed Shree Airlines to ground all the company’s aircraft until security checks have been carried out on the engines.
The incident follows a plane disaster in the tourist city of Pokhra, Nepal on January 15, 2023, which left 71 dead and one person unaccounted for.
According to a preliminary report, one of the pilots said that there was no power to the engine prior the crash.
