A plane crash in Nepal killed all 18 passengers on board on Wednesday and left the pilot injured, police said. The Saurya Airlines plane crashed during take-off on a test flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara.

“Eighteen bodies have been recovered including one foreigner We are in the process of taking them for post-mortem,” police spokesperson Dan Bahadur Karki.

The plane took off and turned right before it crashed in the eastern section of the airport, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said. Kathmandu airport general manager Jagannath Niroula told AFP further details were “still being confirmed.”

Nepal’s air safety record

• Saurya Airlines operates the Bombardier CRJ 200 regional jet on domestic routes.

• “The plane was scheduled to undergo maintenance for a month beginning Thursday … It is unclear why it crashed,” a spokesperson for the carrier said. 

• Nepal’s aviation sector has a poor safety record due to insufficient training and maintenance.

• The European Union has banned all Nepali airlines from its airspace.