By Shristi Kafle
KATHMANDU, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Kathmandu Medical College, known as KMC hospital, witnessed throbbing ambiance on Monday evening. Unlike the usual movement of patients there, the hospital got filled with screams, tears and grief for loved ones.
As soon as the US-Bangla Airlines flight crashed at Nepal's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) in the afternoon killing nearly 50 people, at least 24 injured were taken to this hospital, which is the nearest one from the crash site.
The Bombardier Dash Q-400 aircraft, with 67 passengers and four crew members onboard, was en route to Kathmandu from Dhaka of Bangladesh and crashed while landing.
Among those taken to KMC hospital, 8 were pronounced dead upon their arrival, including 3 Bangladeshis, three Nepali nationals and two with unidentified nationalities.
Thirty-year-old Sajana Devkota was the fifth on the death list pasted outside the hospital, which left her loved ones in heartbreaking condition inside the reception hall.
"Sajana, please come back once", "I want to see you my daughter", "I wanted to see your prosperity", "Why did you leave us like this?" Sajana's mother screamed continuously while her relatives were unable to console the hopeless mother.
An employee at Young Travels, Sajana was among the members of various travel agencies from Nepal attending a training program in Bangladesh. Though she was supposed to return on Sunday, their fate had a different story as the flight was cancelled at the last moment.
Sajana's husband remained in another corner, numb at his life partner's death, while their only son remained at home, probably waiting for the arrival of his mother.
Binita Kuikel, who has been working in the same travel agency with Sajana in the last two years, was on the spot with tears.
"We lost a very good friend, it's shocking," Binita lacked words to share with Xinhua as she mourned the loss of her dearest colleague.
Just outside the reception hall stood many others mourning for the loss of their family members. Asish Chitrakar was one of them, who lost his cousin Prabin Chitrakar in the fatal crash. Prabin, a husband and a father of a son, was an employee in a travel agency.
"I don't want to say anything at the moment," Asish told Xinhua, while their relative, photo journalist Rajendra Chitrakar said, "Its bad luck. Life is so unpredictable."
The hospital remained tensed till night with the presence of media people, security personnel and even ordinary people, saddened by such a big incident in the country, which recently just formed the federal parliament and appointed new prime minister.
Among those brought in KMC, four were referred to other hospitals while the remaining are undergoing treatment in ICU, surgery ward, ortho ward, plastic ward, among others.
Prakash Bhattarai, administrative director at the KMC hospital, told Xinhua, "We have deployed a special medical team in all the wards where survivors are being treated. Some have shown progress while some are still under intensive care."
According to authorities, other survivors are being treated in different hospitals like Norvic, Mediciti and Om.
Basanta Bohora, who survived the crash and is being treated in Norvic hospital, was quoted by local media as saying, "All of a sudden the plane shook violently and there was a loud bang afterwards. I was seated near the window and was able to break out of the window."
This is the deadliest air crash at Nepal's only international airport after a Turkish Airlines flight crash-landed at the airport in March 2015 with no casualties.
The air crash has been regarded as a big shot to the tourism industry of the Himalayan nation, which is still recovering after the deadly earthquake of 2015 killed nearly 9,000 people.
