19 people were killed when a plane flying from the Nepali capital to the Everest region crashed on Friday. The plane went down on the outskirts of Kathmandu only minutes after take off. The Sita Air plane was carrying 19 people on board, 16 passengers and three crew members, including 7 Britons and five Chinese tourists and 7 Nepalis heading for the Everest region in the season of trekking. Officials in Nepal said the pilot made a maneuver right after take off before the plan crashed on a river bank and caught fire. Kathmandu airport officials said the plane crashed into a bird and the pilot tried to move it and land safely by the river, but the plane caught fire. Fatal air crashes are common in Nepal, where many visitors choose to fly to avoid the under-developed and winding road networks of the country. The Friday crash is the country's 6th in less than two years. In May of this year a plane crash left 15 people dead and only 6 survived when their plane tried landing at an airport in the north of the country in the Annapurna mountain region. In September 2011, a small sight-seeing plane crashed when it attempted to land in the capital's airport due to bad weather.
