Buddha Air Flight 103
Beechcraft 1900D · Controlled flight into terrain due to pilot error
From Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM) to Tribhuvan International Airport
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA11WA103
- 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
- 19 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 19
- 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
Beechcraft 1900D
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 1900
- 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-AEK
- Operator
- Buddha Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 19
- Route
- From Tribhuvan International Airport (KTM)To Tribhuvan International Airport
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
- Personnel issues › Physical
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Miscellaneous
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
On 25 September 2011, Buddha Air Flight 103, a Beechcraft 1900 commuter aircraft, crashed near Lalitpur, Nepal, while attempting to land in poor weather at nearby Kathmandu Airport. All 19 passengers and crew on board were killed. The aircraft, operated by Buddha Air, was on a sightseeing flight to Mount Everest.
Accident
Initial investigations revealed that the aircraft was being operated under VFR (Visual Flight Rules); and two minutes before it was due to land it entered clouds and crashed at 5400 ft. Air traffic controllers and members of the investigation team claim the reason for the crash was pilot error.
A resident of Bisankhunarayan reported that the aircraft had struck the roof of a house in the village before crashing. At the time of the accident, visibility was poor due to the presence thick fog in the mountainous area.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
A Nepali aviation agency found that the first officer only had 18 hours of flying experience in the type. The aircraft entered a cloud bank two minutes before landing and was flying at 5,000 feet instead of the 6,000 feet assigned at that area. The aircraft lost altitude, struck trees, and crashed into the ground.
The captain was assigned to the accident flight on the day of the accident on short notice, but he had not gotten enough rest, having flown the previous day. Investigators determined that, due to the resulting fatigue, the captain had assigned flight duties to the first officer despite her limited flight experience.
The crew did not adhere to standard operating procedures (SOPs), which required the aircraft to fly above 6,000 feet (1,800 m) in the accident area. Crew coordination was deficient as the captain had frequently distracted the first officer with advice rather than explaining the procedures to her.
Investigators required all airlines to install ground proximity warning systems (GPWS) on their aircraft and issued eight other safety recommendations regarding pilot training and the installation of visual flight aids.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Buddha Air Flight 103” (revision 1372815622, 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 September 25, 2011, at about 0734 local time (0149 UTC), a Hawker Beechcraft 1900D, registered in Nepal as 9N-AEK, crashed near the village of Bishankhunarayan, Nepal. Bishankhunarayan is approximately 15 km south of the capital, Kathmandu. The 3 crewmembers and 16 passengers were all fatally injured. The airplane was owned and operated by Buddha Air as flight 103, a scheduled sightseeing flight. The flight had originally taken off from Tribhuvan International Airport (VNKT), Kathmandu, Nepal and was returning to VNKT after completing the sightseeing tour.
The Governement of Nepal has established an investigation commission to investigate the accident. As the state of manufacture, the NTSB has designated a U.S. Accredited Representative under the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation to assist the Government of Nepal in their invesetigation. All inquiries should be directed to:
Director General of Civil Aviation Civil Aviation Authority Babar Mahal Kathmandu Nepal E-mail: cnsatm@mos.com.np
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Buddha Air Flight 103
- Article
- Buddha Air Flight 103
- Revision
- 1372815622 · 2026-09-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q2641878
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA11WA103
- Event ID
- 20110926X92508
- Case number
- DCA11WA103
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Buddha Air Flight 103" (page 33202155, revision 1372815622); merged with NTSB case DCA11WA103 (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 DCA11WA103
- 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 (4)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Buddha Air Flight 103" and NTSB case DCA11WA103, 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.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states the sightseeing flight "was returning to VNKT after completing the sightseeing tour"; Bishankhunarayan is the crash site.
- 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.