A survivor tells the tale of horror landing

KATHMANDU, MAR 05 - “They say to survive a plane crash is a miracle. I guess it’s a miracle we all survived,” says Dikesh Malhotra, who was aboard Turkish Airlines’ Flight TK726 that crash-landed at Tribhuvan Airport, on Wednesday morning.  

Malhotra, who is the President of Integrated Mobility Solutions, the authorised distributor of Samsung phones in Nepal, was in Spain for the launch of the Samsung Galaxy 6 along with his father and a few acquaintances. They were returning to Kathmandu via Istanbul.

The plane was scheduled to land at 6:45 am but ‘Flightradar 24’ reports that it circled the Valley 6-7 times, unable to land because of a dense fog that had enveloped the Valley.   “The pilot tried landing twice. During the first attempt, when we were almost at the point of touching down, the plane pulled back into the air because of the poor visibility around the runway,” says Malhotra. “At this point, the passengers started panicking because we couldn’t figure out why we were still in the air.”

The plane kept circling in the air for another 15-20 minutes. “Then the pilot made a second attempt at landing,” says Malhotra. As the plane was approaching the runway, Malhotra says he looked outside and saw nothing because of a dense fog. “Before I could comprehend what was happening, there was a sudden impact--the plane had missed the runway and was skidding.”

Malhotra, who was seated near an emergency exit door, look towards an airhostess and saw that she too was in a state of panic.

As the plane skidded and veered out of control, Malhotra says, bags spilled from the overhead compartment, injuring some passengers. Turkish Airlines has said in a statement that one passenger was admitted to the hospital.

“Then things came to a halt, and the pilot asked us to calm down,” says Malhotra.

“I think the pilot did a great job flying in the conditions--when I looked out of the plane, I could see nothing but fog. I am glad no one was seriously hurt.”  But the passengers were made to wait, as the crew prepared to deploy the emergency slides. They were inside the plane for about ten minutes, during which smoke started filling up the passenger cabin. And that ratcheted up the panic levels. “Everyone wanted to just get out.”

Then the emergency exit opened, and one by one everyone slid down the emergency slides. Upon exiting the plane, Malhotra took to social media, posting pictures of the plane lying in the mud. The post was widely circulated on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, with comments and well wishes pouring in.

“We are all just living at the edge of the knife and life can be so unpredictable!” wrote Zenisha Moktan, a former Miss Nepal and friend of Malhotra’s.

“Situations like these make you think how bad it could have gotten and how in the blink of an eye our whole world could have changed.”