Incredible moment sole survivor Nepal pilot is pulled from wreckage after cockpit split from jet in crash that killed 18

THIS is the incredible moment the pilot and sole survivor of a plane crash in Nepal is pulled from the wreckage in a miracle escape.

The passenger jet crashed and burst into flames after taking off from capital Kathmandu, killing 18 people.

But the pilot managed to survive after his cockpit was split off from the jet by a freight container seconds before the rest of the aircraft crashed.

The Bombardier CRJ 200 plane operated by Saurya Airlines nosedived towards the ground after the failed take-off as it was beginning a 20-minute flight to Pokhara for a maintenance review.

Heart-stopping footage showed the aircraft uncontrollably spiralling towards a gorge in Kathmandu on Wednesday morning.

After falling from a terrifying 400 feet, the Saurya Airlines jet slammed into the ground, erupting into a fireball as it skids along the eastern side of the runway.

Thick, black smoke could be seen billowing from the plane as onlookers gasped in disbelief.

Captain Manish Ratna Shakya is now recovering in hospital after his miraculous escape, aviation officials said Thursday.

BBC Nepali also confirmed he is talking and was able to tell his family he was “all good”.

Rescuers found the stricken pilot as flames began to engulf the crashed cockpit, who miraculously suffered only injuries to his eyes.

Senior Superintendent of Nepal Police Dambar Bishwakarma said: “He was facing difficulty to breathe as the air shield was open. We broke the window and immediately pulled him out.

"He had blood all over his face when he was rescued but we took him to the hospital in a condition where he could speak."

An army statement on Wednesday night added the captain was rescued bleeding but conscious.

Badri Pandey, Nepal's civil aviation minister, also explained how the pilot managed to dodge death.

He said: "It [the plane] hit the container on the edge of the airport... then, it fell further below.

"The cockpit, however, remained stuck inside the container. This is how the captain survived.”

Nepal has a woeful track record on aviation safety and the Himalayan republic has seen a spate of deadly light plane and helicopter crashes over the decades.

Nepal's government has since appointed a five-member investigation team to probe the causes of the crash.

Gyanendra Bhul of the Civil Aviation Authority said: "We will now hand over the black box and the remains of the plane to the committee for investigation."

Saurya Airlines spokesman Mukesh Khanal said the flight was carrying a technical team to Pokhara to conduct an extensive maintenance review of the plane at the airport there.

Khanal said the flight was carrying two crew and 17 others, among them the young child of an airline employee.

Nepal's air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.

But it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance, issues compounded by mountainous Nepal's treacherous geography.

The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.

Nepal has some of the world's trickiest runways on which to land, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.

The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating perilous flying conditions.

Nepal's last major incident involving a commercial flight was in January 2023, when a Yeti Airlines service crashed while landing at Pokhara, killing all 72 people aboard.

That was Nepal's deadliest since 1992 when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.