Captain Abid Sultan (pictured) was said to have suffered an emotional breakdown after an air steward questioned his flying skills on the March 12 flight to Kathmandu. Photo / Facebook
Captain Abid Sultan (pictured) was said to have suffered an emotional breakdown after an air steward questioned his flying skills on the March 12 flight to Kathmandu. Photo / Facebook
A pilot was weeping at the controls of a plane which crashed at Nepal's international airport in an accident which killed 51 people, a leaked report has claimed.
Captain Abid Sultan was said to have suffered an emotional breakdown in the cockpit after an air steward questioned his flying skills on the March 12 flight to Kathmandu.
The US-Bangla Airlines captain was 'under stress and emotionally disturbed', distracting the inexperienced co-pilot before the plane crash-landed, skidded into a football field and burst into flames.
A female co-worker had 'questioned his reputation as a good instructor' on the flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh, a draft of the report leaked on Monday said.
Nepalese army rescue team searchinh on a debris of an airplane that crashed in Kathmandu using crane at Kathmandu, Nepal on Monday, March 12, 2018. Photo / Getty Images
'This mistrust and stress led him to continuously smoke in the cockpit and also suffer an emotional breakdown several times during the flight,' it said.
The pilot, a former Bangladesh Air Force pilot who was also an instructor for the airline, was 'crying and sneezing on several occasions during the flight', it is claimed.
He apparently talked non-stop as he tried to impress his competence and proficiency upon the co-pilot, Prithula Rashid, who had only recently qualified and never previously landed at Kathmandu airport.
The captain's constant monologue led to the 'total disorientation' of the co-pilot, who was flying the plane when it crashed. Prithula Rashid had only recently qualified and had never previously landed at Kathmandu airport.
Nepal's only international airport lies in a narrow bowl-shaped valley with the Himalayas to the north, making it a notoriously challenging place to land.
As the Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 turboprop approached the runway it made a last-minute change of direction, failed to sufficiently reduce its speed and did not carry out the necessary landing checks, investigators said.
Nepali rescue workers works around the wreckage of an airplane that crashed in the Tribhuvan International airport in Kathmandu, Nepal on March 12, 2018. Photo / Getty Images
The report revised the final death toll up to 51, including both pilots. Twenty passengers miraculously escaped the burning wreckage but sustained serious injuries.
Conflicting reports that emerged shortly after the crash had suggested confusion between the pilot and air traffic control may have caused the accident.
The report said air traffic control did confuse the two ends of the runway - referred to as 'Runway 02' and 'Runway 20' - but concluded 'this had no impact on the flight'.
A source at Nepal's Tourism Ministry, which led the probe into the crash, confirmed the authenticity of the draft.
The accident was Nepal's deadliest since September 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed as it approached Kathmandu airport.
Bangladeshi social activist made a candle light procession at Dhaka in memory those died of the debris of an airplane that crashed near the international airport in Kathmandu. Photo / Getty Images
Just two months earlier a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
Nepal's poor air safety record is largely blamed on inadequate maintenance and sub-standard management. Accidents are common and Nepal-based airlines are banned from flying in European Union airspace.
