Pilot's 'erroneous decisions' led to US-Bangla plane crash

The Nepal Government's investigations into the US-Bangla plane crash in March has blamed the pilot for his alleged erroneous decisions during the flight.

The investigations revealed that a "series of erroneous decisions" allegedly taken by the pilot of the plane BS211 led to its crash. The plane crashed at Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.

As many as 51 people were killed in the crash and 20 survived out of 67 passengers and four crew members onboard. The majority of people killed in the crash were medical students who had come home on leave before their final year results, The Kathmandu Post reported.

The investigation revealed that the pilot of the plane, Captain Abid Sultan, was apparently undergoing tremendous personal mental stress and anxiety, and he allegedly took a series of erroneous decisions, according to the report.

The pilot also allegedly lied to the control tower during the landing procedure and was also smoking continuously inside the cockpit during the one-hour flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu, the investigation claimed. During the inquiry, the investigators also found out that the pilot was allegedly engaged in erratic behaviour throughout the flight and had also misbehaved with a female colleague.

The Nepalese investigators, in a report, claimed that six minutes before the landing time, the pilot had apparently confirmed that the plane's landing gear was down and locked. Minutes later, the plane crashed after missing the runway. However, after conducting a final landing checklist, co-pilot Prithula Rashid found that landing gears were not down.