A Nepal Army cargo plane overshot the runway and crashed while trying to land at Bajura Airport, killing the senior pilot and injuring two other crew members on Tuesday, three days after two pilots were killed when a civilian cargo aircraft crashed in Lukla.

Colonel Kailash Gurung died on the spot.

Captain Anita Ale and warrant officer Purna Bahadur Khadka have sustained serious injuries, said Dilip Shahi, a local government official, who was involved in the rescue operations.

Rescue officials from the Army and Nepal Police had to blow the cockpit door off to rescue Ale and Khadka.

The injured were airlifted to Kohalpur Hospital in Banke on a Sita Airlines plane. Images and videos of the crash site show that the aircraft crashed “belly up”—60 meters from the runway end.

The Poland-made PZL M28 Skytruck with a call sign NA-048 had taken off for Simikot in Humla from Surkhet Airport carrying rice. It diverted to Bajura Airport after the air traffic controller at Simikot reported strong winds.

“The pilots could have lost control of the aircraft. It overturned in a field after overshooting the runway,” said Pratap Babu Tiwari, chief of Nepalgunj Airport.

According to Madan Bahadur Thapa, a station manager of Sita Air, the Army aircraft at 12:10pm landed nearly halfway down the touchdown mark of the 573-meter-long runway.

Then it went out of control. “The plane overshot the runway, slammed onto the airport fence and overturned in a field,” said Thapa, who said he saw the accident from close range.

Light smoke was seen rising from the aircraft. However, no fire and ground casualty occurred.

Earlier in the day, Sita Air’s Dornier plane had diverted from Simikot to land at Bajura Airport.

Meanwhile, a Goma Air aircraft was also on the way to Simikot, which then diverted to Nepalgunj.  Earlier on October 18, 2011, a Nepal Army military aircraft had crashed at the Chaudhul Dhuri village in Baglung, killing six people on board.