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The plane, carrying two crew members and 17 technicians, was going for regular maintenance to Nepal's new Pokhara airport, which opened in January and is equipped with aircraft maintenance hangars, they said.
"Shortly after takeoff ... the aircraft veered off to the right and crashed on the east side of the runway," the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said in a statement.
Eighteen of those on board were Nepali citizens while one engineer was from Yemen, Saurya said.
"Only the captain was rescued alive and is receiving treatment at a hospital," said Tej Bahadur Poudyal, the spokesman for Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport.
Television visuals showed fire fighters trying to put out the blaze and thick black smoke rising into the sky. They also showed the plane flying a little above the runway and then tilting to its right before it crashed.
Other visuals showed rescue workers rummaging through the charred remains of the plane, strewn in lush green fields, and bodies being carried to ambulances on stretchers as local residents looked on.