With over 824,000 views on TikTok, a video of the incredible act of collaboration has taken the internet by storm.
In an act of group kindness, passengers in the video work together to push the light Tara Air plane off the track. After one of the plane’s tyres exploded, swaths of people stood on either side of it, assisting it in moving down the runway.
The clip was also posted on Twitter, where one Nepalese user joked, “Probably only in Nepal.”
@khagendrakhadka6124 काेल्टि मा तारा एरोपेलेन को टायर पत्किदा यस्तो छ हालत पुरै प्यासेन्जर लागेर साइड गरेर पनि धनगढी मा आइयो। @kopilagiri30
The twin otter jet belonged to Tara Air, according to Nepali journalist Sushil Bhattarai, and when it became stopped in the middle of the runway, passengers and security authorities banded together to relocate the plane.
Yeti Airlines’ sister airline Tara Air confirmed to Nepalese news portal Online Khabar that the plane had landed at Bajura Airport from Simkot in Humla when the tragedy occurred.
Because there were no facilities available to drag the jet to the other side, passengers assisted airport officials in moving the plane from the taxiway so that flight operations could restart.
Then, from Nepalgunj, another Tara Air plane arrived in Bajura with tyres and engineers.
Both aircrafts landed in Nepalgunj after the tyres were fitted, according to the spokeswoman.
When a plane becomes stopped, passengers from Nepal aren’t the only ones who pitch in with airline employees.
Passengers in Igarka, Siberia, got out in late 2014 to help drag a jet by its wings out of icy conditions.
सायद हाम्राे नेपालमा मात्र होला ! pic.twitter.com/fu5AXTCSsw
— Samrat (@PLA_samrat) December 1, 2021
The Russian police responded by opening an official inquiry.
“They pushed the plane as if it was a car that had got stuck, which is categorically forbidden as it can damage the plane’s exterior, for example,” a representative of the local prosecutor’s office told press at the time.
Katekavia, a subsidiary of Utair, one of Russia’s largest airlines, was flying a Tupolev 134.