The total length of the runway at Chandragadhi Airport in Jhapa is 1,500 meters. When an ATR aircraft lands there, it has to touch the ground and roll within 1,200 meters after leaving 300 meters from the end of the runway. However, the preliminary report of the investigation commission made public on Sunday states that the Buddha Air ATR aircraft that crashed about two months ago reached 1,080 meters from the end of the runway and landed with only 28 percent of the runway remaining. The preliminary report of the accident investigation commission, which was formed to study the accident, made public on Sunday, pointed out that the aircraft went over 183 meters into a grassy field and crashed into a ravine after leaving 72 percent of the runway and landing on only 28 percent of the runway. Buddha Air's ATR 72 'Alpha Mike Foxtrot', which took off from Kathmandu on 18 Poush 2082 for Chandragadhi at 8:21 pm carrying 51 passengers and 5 crew members, skidded off the runway while landing at 9:05 pm. The aircraft was damaged in the accident, but the passengers and crew were safe. The co-pilot and four passengers suffered minor injuries. The Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation had formed an accident investigation commission on 23 Poush under the coordination of Summit Air Senior Captain Binod Puri to investigate the incident. In its preliminary report submitted to the ministry on Sunday, the commission stated that the main cause of the accident was not landing in the specified 'threshold zone' during landing but rather overshooting it. After the plane that took off from Kathmandu passed Morang and entered Jhapa district, the crew reported from a reporting point named 'Mahesh', 21 kilometers away from Chandragadhi Airport, that the plane was approaching the airport at an altitude of 4,400 feet. The air traffic controller then gave the plane permission to land at 9:01 a.m. However, the plane landed on the runway 4 minutes later than the time given by ATC. 'During landing at 9:05 a.m., the plane skidded off the runway after touching down.' According to the FDR (Flight Data Recorder) data on the plane, the plane left 72 percent (1,080 meters) of the 1,500-meter runway and touched down on the remaining 420 meters of terrain. After touching down for about 32 meters, skid marks indicating that the plane applied brakes were found 1,112 meters from the runway. The report states. ‘The plane should have landed about 300 meters from the threshold of point 10 of the runway.’ But it appears that the plane landed much earlier that day, 1,080 meters before that. The plane that entered from point 10 of the runway was seen to have used only 420 meters of the runway,’ Puri, the coordinator of the inquiry commission, told Kantipur on Monday evening. ‘If the landing gear had touched down within 300 meters of the threshold of the runway, the flight would have been safe.’ The commission is conducting a detailed technical analysis of the incident. It has been stated that it will take another month to come up with the final report along with the analysis. The investigation commission of this incident included Himalaya Airlines' captains Manir Shrestha and Rivaz Pradhan, human factor expert Dr. Ajay Pradhan and Himalaya, Shree Airlines' engineer Suresh Brajacharya. The length of the runway of Chandragadhi Airport is 1,500 meters. The name of the western point of the runway is 10 and the name of the other point to the east is 28. According to the flight data recorder of the aircraft, the aircraft left about 1,080 meters from the end of runway 10 and touched down at 420 meters, and the commission found signs of braking from a distance of 1,112 meters. Signs of skidding were seen in front of the aircraft after the point where the aircraft's wheels touched down. As mentioned in the report, the aircraft first turned right and then turned left and exited the runway. In the process, the other 28 of the runway broke through the airport's inner fence It stopped about 183 meters east of Bindu in the bay.

According to the initial report, the flight was the fifth and last flight of the crew that day. During the flight, Chief Captain Shailesh Limbu was in the role of ‘pilot monitoring’ and copilot Sushant Shrestha was in the role of landing the aircraft. The wind direction, QNH and temperature on that day were favorable for landing the aircraft. After the accident, the passengers were safely evacuated through the service door on the right and the emergency door on the left. Although the ‘escape hatch’ of the cockpit was opened, the crew finally exited through the service door, the statement to the commission states. The report states that the main and nose landing gear, propeller and engine of the aircraft were significantly damaged in the accident. The commission has not mentioned anything about the time when the fire brigade of Bhadrapur Airport reached the scene of the accident. After this accident, both pilots of Buddha have been banned from flying 6. According to a senior captain of Buddha Air, Buddha currently has 62 captains and 67 co-pilots. After this incident, Buddha has banned its co-pilots from flying and landing at other small airports except Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bhairahawa and Dhangadhi. Similarly, it has also reshuffled the roles of half a dozen pilots in charge of the operations department there. Ranjan Sharma, the head of the operations department, has resigned. He was a senior pilot working at Buddha Air since its inception 28 years ago. According to a director of Buddha, Captain Pramod Thapa has now been given the responsibility of the head of the operations department and Shailesh Rawal has been given the responsibility of the chief pilot. Ravi Shrestha and Mainit KC have been appointed as the heads of training.