Agni Air Flight 101
Dornier 228-101 · Crashed following electrical failure and spatial disorientation
From Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) to Tenzing-Hillary Airport (LUA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA10WA089
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · CAAN official statement
- Event fatalities
- 14 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 14
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Dornier 228-101
- Flight
- AG101
- Aircraft type
- Dornier 228
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- 9N-AHE
- Operator
- Agni Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 14
- Route
- From Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM)To Tenzing-Hillary Airport (LUA)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 129: Foreign
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Agni Air Flight 101 was a regional flight between Kathmandu and Lukla, Nepal, that crashed on 24 August 2010, killing all 14 people on board. Twenty minutes after take-off, the flight crew of the Dornier 228 had reported a technical problem. Contact with the aircraft was lost shortly after. The aircraft crashed 50 miles south of Kathmandu.
The investigation into the accident found that pilot fell victim to spatial disorientation following the loss of flight instruments after both generators failed. Backup battery power was exhausted prematurely due to the crew using an outdated checklist.
History of the flight
Flight 101 was traveling on a flight between Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, Nepal, and Tenzing-Hillary Airport in Lukla, Nepal. Twenty minutes after take-off, the crew of the aircraft contacted air traffic control reporting technical problems and requesting a return to Kathmandu.
Controllers then diverted the aircraft to Simara Airport in Pipara Simara, Nepal, due to poor weather conditions at Kathmandu. Aviation officials said although the flight crew reported technical problems, they did not declare an emergency or request priority clearance to land.
Five minutes after reporting technical problems, radar and radio contact with the aircraft was lost. The aircraft crashed in the town of Shikharpur, Narayani, around 50 mi south of Kathmandu. Witnesses reported there was no noise from the engines prior to the crash. The force of the crash spread wreckage in an area with a diameter of around 330 ft; and the aircraft created a crater 3 m deep upon crashing.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The government of Nepal formed a five-member panel to help determine the cause of the crash; the committee was instructed to submit a report on the crash within 65 days.
Despite initial reports that technical issues had resulted in the accident, the cause was found to be spatial disorientation of the pilot following the loss of the attitude indicator. Flying in poor weather, that is in instrument meteorological conditions, the flight crew would have had to rely only on their instruments. The failure of the attitude indicator was caused by the failure of both generators and the crew using an outdated checklist. The battery was therefore drained of power in less than half the normal discharge time.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Agni Air Flight 101” (revision 1368296761, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On August 24, 2010 about 7:30 AM local time, an Agni Air (registration 9N-AHE) Dornier 228 equipped with Garrett TPE331 engines, impacted terrain about 20 miles south of Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM), Kathmandu, Nepal. The 14 passengers and crew on board received fatal injuries and the airplane was destroyed. The flight had departed KTM and its intended destination was Lukla-Tenzing-Hillary Airport (LUA).
The accident is being investigated by the Nepal Accident Investigation Commission. The NTSB has appointed a U.S. Accredited Representative to assist the investigation under the provisions of ICAO Annex 13 as the State of design and manufacture of the engines.
All requests for information should be directed to:
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal Babarmahal, Kathmandu, Nepal Tel:4262387, 4262326, 4262518 Fax:977-1-4262516 E-mail: dgca@caanepal.org.np
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Agni Air Flight 101
- Article
- Agni Air Flight 101
- Revision
- 1368296761 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q4055776
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA10WA089
- Event ID
- 20100830X52817
- Case number
- DCA10WA089
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Agni Air Flight 101" (page 28512185, revision 1368296761); merged with NTSB case DCA10WA089 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date; matches the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) (accident record); the investigation itself was by a Government of Nepal accident investigation commission whose report was not found online official statement
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA10WA089
- Operation
- Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) (accident record); the investigation itself was by a Government of Nepal accident investigation commission whose report was not found online official statement
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities; matches the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) (accident record); the investigation itself was by a Government of Nepal accident investigation commission whose report was not found online official statement
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Agni Air Flight 101" and NTSB case DCA10WA089, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- Checked against the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) (accident record); the investigation itself was by a Government of Nepal accident investigation commission whose report was not found online official statement on 2026-09-18. The report states the same date, fatalities, registration and operator. Taken from the report: type of operation. Not checked: place, crash-site coordinates, flight number, aircraft type, departure, destination, damage and ground fatalities.