Plane Skids Off Runway in Nepal Amid Dense Fog

By Kristina Pydynowski, Senior Meteorologist

March 4,2015; 11:08PM,EST

 

 

A Turkish Airlines plane skidded off a runway as it attempted to land in Kathmandu, Nepal, amid dense fog early Wednesday morning.
The Airbus 330 was arriving at Kathmandu's Tribhuwan International Airport from Istanbul, Turkey, according to the Associated Press.
The plane circled for a half hour over Nepal before making a second attempt to land. After it slid off the runway, the plane sustained some damage to its front. The 238 people on board escaped serious injury, but passengers reportedly had bumps and bruises.
Video and photos at the time of the incident show dense fog covering the area.
FlightAware.com reports the jetliner was scheduled to reach Kathmandu at 6:55 a.m. Nepal Time (NPT) Wednesday (8:10 p.m. EST Tuesday). Official observations from the airport confirm that visibility had dropped dramatically to 500 m (5/16th of a mile) by 6 a.m. NPT.
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Weather data from the airport was not received for the following two hours; however, once data resumed, visibility then improved to more than 3,200 m (2 miles) by 10 a.m.
The foggy morning followed the 47 mm (1.85 inches) of rain that fell from Sunday to Tuesday morning.