RismadarVoice Reporters, May 11, 2026
Hundreds of passengers and crew aboard a Turkish Airlines flight were safely evacuated on Monday after the aircraft’s landing gear caught fire while landing at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal.
According to Nepal’s civil aviation authority, the incident occurred as the aircraft, arriving from Istanbul with 277 passengers and 11 crew members onboard, touched down at the airport.
A spokesman for the authority, Gyanendra Bhul, said the plane’s right landing gear caught fire during landing.
“Fire was visible during the landing. Investigations are ongoing. All passengers are safe,” Bhul said.
Authorities said the airport’s only runway was shut down for nearly two hours following the incident before normal operations resumed later in the morning.
Turkish Airlines confirmed that passengers were evacuated using emergency slides after smoke was noticed coming from the landing gear during taxiing.
In a statement posted on social media, the airline’s spokesman, Yahya Ustun, said preliminary findings pointed to a technical fault involving a hydraulic pipe.
“A technical inspection of our aircraft has been initiated by our authorised teams,” he stated.
The airline also announced that an additional flight had been arranged for the return journey.
Nepal’s aviation sector has faced repeated safety concerns over the years due to the country’s mountainous terrain and difficult landing conditions. The Himalayan nation is known for remote and challenging runways surrounded by snow-covered peaks.
Following several air crashes and the European Union’s blacklist of Nepalese airlines, Nepalese authorities last year unveiled plans to improve aviation safety with new radar and weather monitoring systems.
In 2015, another Turkish Airlines aircraft carrying 224 passengers skidded off the runway at Kathmandu airport.
Although no injuries were recorded, the accident forced the closure of the airport runway for four days and disrupted several international flights.
