As the plane approached Bhadrapur and headed east, Sabin turned on his switched-off mobile phone, called home, and said, ”I'm going to heat up the food, I'm going to get off.”
What you should know
Sabin Jogi, 40, of Bhadrapur Municipality-10, had gone to Kathmandu on personal business. He had planned to return home the day before after finishing work. However, after a relative urged him to return with him, he stayed in Kathmandu until Friday. This decision pushed him towards the most terrifying journey of his life.
I had a Buddha Air ticket to return to Bhadrapur at 7 pm on Friday. However, the plane finally took off after an hour and a half delay. There was normal turbulence in the sky, so there was no need to worry.
Sabin felt relieved when the air hostess informed her that she would be landing at Bhadrapur airport at around 9 pm. As the plane approached Bhadrapur, she turned on her switched-off mobile phone, called home and said, "I need to heat the food, I'm about to land."
However, the view below was not normal. There was thick fog. The runway was not clearly visible. The pilot tried to land the plane a little further away than usual. Suddenly, the plane shook violently. There was a 'bumbling' sound. Even though the landing gear was engaged, the plane kept sliding forward instead of stopping.
As the plane moved eastward, even passing through the iron wire mesh built to block the runway, Sabin thought, ‘Today is the last day.’
But, by chance, the plane crashed into a culvert about two to three hundred meters east of the runway and stopped. Suddenly, all the lights went out. Darkness fell. The passengers started screaming and shouting.
‘It must be said that it was lucky that the plane did not catch fire,’ he said. He said that the plane’s fuel had spilled and was all over the passengers’ bodies. ‘At that moment, someone opened the door,’ Sabin, who was sitting in the 4D seat, recalls that moment, ‘When the door opened, everyone started jumping for their lives. I also went to jump.’
Sabin also jumped along with the crowd. But, unfortunately! As soon as he hit the ground, five or six other passengers fell on him. He was crushed in the crowd. It was difficult to breathe. He could no longer move his body.
‘It felt like I couldn’t get up,’ he says, ‘but I managed to get up and run away, fearing that the ship would catch fire.’
At that time, many other passengers were also lying injured around the ship. The darkness, fog, and fear made the entire area terrifying.
Sabin was admitted to the hospital around 10 pm. His back was injured. According to the doctor, there was some pressure on his spine.
Sabin, who was lying on a bed at the local Om Sai Pathibhara Hospital, says, ‘The biggest thing is that he survived. Back pain seemed normal in the face of the accident.’
That night's accident made Sabin understand the value of life. Today, he considers it like a 'second birth'.
