MIRACLE IN MIRACLE

NEPAL AIRCRASH SURVIVORS RECALL:

SURVIVORS  of this week's plane crash at Nepal's main airport said Wednesday that it was a miracle that they survived an accident that killed  49 out of the 71 people on board.

Shorno Huggain, who was a passenger on the US-Bangla Airlines flight when it crashed Monday while attempting to land at Kathmandu's  airport, said her husband saved her life.

''I thought I was going to die because I inhaled a lot smoke, but I did not want to die.'' Huggain said from her hospital bed, recalling how she was pinned in her seat after the crash.

''Finally, my husband was able to pull me out of the plane, and moments later it burst into flames, '' she said. ''My husband saved my life.''

Huggain's brother-in-law died in the crash.

Another passenger, Nepalese travel entrepreneur Keshav Pandey, said he was lucky to survive with only injuries.

''I have not heard of many people surviving a plane crash, but it is a miracle that I am alive,'' Pandey said.

''I guess I lived because the plane crashed on open grounds,'' said Pandey, adding that he does not remember much but believe he was ejected from the plane when it broke on impact.

Huggain and Pandey recalled the flight being mostly smooth all the way from Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, to Kathmandu, but said that before the crash, the aircraft violently shook, tilting toward the left and hitting the ground with huge sound.

Among the  22  who survived, two have gone home, while the others were being treated at various hospitals in Kathmandu, Nepal's capital.

Ten of the injured were at the Kathmandu Medical College, seven were in stable condition and three in critical condition. [Agencies]