1975 Royal Nepal Airlines Pilatus PC-6 Porter crash

On 31 March 1975, a Pilatus PC-6 Porter operated by Royal Nepal Airlines crashed in Nepal en route from Tribhuvan International Airport to Phaplu Airport on a domestic charter flight. The flight was chartered by Sir Edmund Hillary to bring his wife Louise and daughter Belinda to Phaplu, where he was building a hospital.[2] The plane crashed shortly after takeoff.[3]

1975 Royal Nepal Airlines Pilatus PC-6 Porter crash
A Pilatus PC-6 Porter, similar to the aircraft involved in the accident
Accident
Date31 March 1975
SummaryControlled flight into terrain
SiteBoudhanath, Kathmandu Nepal[1]
Aircraft typePilatus PC-6 Porter
OperatorRoyal Nepal Airlines
Registration9N-AAZ
Flight originTribhuvan International Airport, Kathmandu, Nepal
DestinationPhaplu Airport, Phaplu, Nepal
Passengers4
Crew1
Survivors0

Aircraft

The aircraft involved in the crash was a Pilatus PC-6 Porter operated by Royal Nepal Airlines. It was delivered to Royal Nepal Airlines in 1971.[4]

Crew and Passengers

All occupants on board died in the crash; they included the pilot Peter Shand, Sir Edmund Hillary's wife Louise and daughter Belinda, the family's dog and two Sherpa friends of the family.[3][5]

Incident

The flight was a chartered flight, that took off from Tribhuvan International Airport at or before 7:30 a.m. NPT for its flight to Phaplu Airport. The aircraft took of on runway 20 in a southern direction, but the pilot directly asked for permission to land.[6] The aircraft turned towards the right but was unable to make a landing, crashing into a ditch behind the northern end of the runway.[2]

Aftermath

In her biography Keeper of the Mountains, Elizabeth Hawley describes that the pilot Peter Shand did not do a walk-around,[2] failing to see that aileron was still fixed by a ground lock pin, because he was late to the airport and this caused the accident.[6]

The Nepali Times reported that the pilot was hired by Royal Nepal Airlines despite losing his previous job due to "carelessness".[7]

References
  1. "Aviation Safety Report 2019" (PDF). Kathmandu: Civil Aviation Authority Nepal. p. 33. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  2. McDonald, Bernadette; Hillary, Sir Edmund (October 2012). Keeper of the Mountains. RMB. p. 113. ISBN 978-1927330159.
  3. "Hillary's Kin Killed In Nepal Plane Crash". The New York Times. 1 April 1975. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  4. "S/N 727". Pilatus Porter History. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  5. Dillon, Michael (23 May 2003). "Sherpa Hillary". Nepali Times. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  6. Gill, Michael (24 September 2014). "'Dishevelled' pilot who caused Hillary tragedy should have been barred". Stuff. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  7. Dixit, Kunda (18 July 2019). "Highs and lows of Sir Ed". Nepali Times. Retrieved 30 May 2020.

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