Plane Waiting to Land Goes Down; Dozens Dead

A plane carrying 71 people from Bangladesh swerved erratically and flew dangerously low before crashing and erupting in flames as it landed Monday in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu, killing at least 50 people. The exact number of dead and injured remained unclear amid the chaos of the crash and the rush of badly injured people to nearby hospitals, but Brig. Gen. Gokul Bhandari, a Nepal army spokesman, said it was clear that at least 50 people had died. US-Bangla Airlines Flight BS211 from Dhaka to Kathmandu was carrying 67 passengers and four crew members, per the AP.

The plane swerved repeatedly as it prepared to land, said Amanda Summers, an American working in Nepal. The crowded city sits in a valley in the Himalayan foothills. "It was flying so low I thought it was going to run into the mountains," said Summers, who watched the crash from the terrace of her home office, not far from the airport. "All of a sudden there was a blast and then another blast." The plane had circled Tribhuvan International Airport twice as it waited for clearance to land, the airline's manager in Kathmandu told Dhaka-based Somoy TV station by telephone. (A plane crash elsewhere appears to have killed a bachelorette party.)