Ali Fazal is currently making headlines for the recently released Mirzapur Season 3. The crime thriller series saw him return as Guddu Pandit. Now, he has bagged his next project. The actor is set to star opposite Samantha in Raj & DK’s Rakht Brahmand.

Ali Fazal will be joining an ensemble cast including Aditya Roy Kapoor and Wamiqa Gabbi. Rakht Brahmand is a fantasy drama helmed by Raj & DK and directed by Tumbbad fame Rahi Anil Barve.

A source close to the show revealed, “The project is a marvellous vision of Raj & DK, it’s definitely a step forward in its genre of fantasy drama. The cast has finally all been locked and the shoot is set to start next week. Ali will be shooting for the series through August while also completing small schedules of his other projects. The show came to him and the vision of the show was enough to get Ali excited to be part of the series. It’s a really interesting part, something he has never done before both from character perspective and also genre-wise.” 

Ali will next be seen in Anurag Basu’s Metro In Dino, Aamir Khan Productions’ Lahore 1947 and Mani Ratnam’s Thug Life.

A frightening new video has emerged of the Bombardier CRJ 200 jet that crashed at the Nepal’s Kathmandu airport at 11.15 am (local time). The video captures the final few seconds of the crash.

The clip begins shortly after take-off, with the plane already out-of-control and just a few hundred feet off the ground. Seconds later the plane – a Saurya Airlines service to the tourist hub of Pokhara – which was tilting to the right, jerks to its left and plunges to the ground, exploding in a ball of fire.

There were 19 people – two crew members and 17 staff – of whom 18 have died, authorities said. The lone survivor is the pilot, who has been rushed to a local hospital, a security official at the airport said.

There is no news yet on what caused the crash.

Earlier today an equally shocking video showed the moment the plane hit the ground.

VIDEO | Exact Moment Saurya Airlines Plane Crashed At Kathmandu Airport

The 18-second video, from a CCTV camera at the airport, showed the plane slamming into the runway, skidding along the ground, and bursting into flames.

🔴#BREAKING | Video Shows Exact Moment Plane Crashed At Kathmandu Airport #NepalPlaneCrash #Kathmandu #Nepal pic.twitter.com/saj1eUNN9m

— NDTV (@ndtv) July 24, 2024

Nepal’s aviation sector has boomed recently but the expansion has been marred by poor safety standards, inadequate training, and maintenance issues. As a result, the European Union has banned Nepali carriers from entering its airspace. The Himalayan country’s challenging topography – which sees high-altitude runways surrounded by mountainous terrain – challenge even the most experienced pilots.

The weather in these regions is also notoriously unpredictable, further complicating aviation safety.

READ | Kathmandu Crash: Nepal Home To Some Of World’s Trickiest Runways

In January last year a Yeti Airlines plane crashed while landing in Pokhara, resulting in the death of all 72 on board. That incident was Nepal’s deadliest plane crash since 1992, when a Pakistani jet crashed in Kathmandu, killing all 167 on board. The same year, a Thai Airways flight crashed killing 113.

The Nepal crash has also put the focus on tabletop runways in India and the associated dangers.

Table-top runways are located on top of hills or elevated terrain. This means there is a steep drop on one or more sides, and leaves a very slim margin of error if the plane overshoots the runway.

READ | Nepal Crash Red-Flags Table-Top Runways Risk, India Has 5

Five airports in India have table-top runways — Shimla, Calicut, Mangalore, Lengpui (Mizoram) and Pakyong (Sikkim). Of these, Kerala and Mangalore have seen big crashes in the past.

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The plane crash in Nepal that left 18 people dead has yet again put the spotlight on table-top runways that have been the site of major plane accidents across the world.

Table-top runways are located on an elevated level than the surrounding terrain. This means there is a steep drop on one or more sides of the runway and this leaves a very slim margin of error for the pilot because if the plane overshoots the runway, it will crash down.

Five airports in India have table-top runways — Shimla, Calicut, Mangalore, Lengpui (Mizoram) and Pakyong (Sikkim). Of these, Kerala and Mangalore airports have seen big crashes in the past. On May 22, 2010, Air India Express Flight 812 from Dubai to Mangaluru crashed on landing at and 158 passengers, including six crew members, were killed.

Ten years later, on August 7, 2020, another table-top runway became the site of a tragedy. The Air India Express flight from Dubai to Kozhikode was part of the Vande Bharat mission to bring back Indian nationals stranded due to Covid pandemic. The plane skidded off the table-top runway and crashed below. Nineteen passengers and both pilots died, but 169 others survived.

Civil Aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation, holds periodical reviews of table-top airports to ensure passenger safety. Back in 2022, an official of the DGCA had told the media that the objective behind the review was to prevent any unforeseen incidents and look for ways to make landings in these airports less challenging.

Portugal’s Madeira airport, which has a table-top runway, reported a crash back in 1977 when an Air Portugal Flight 425 overshot and crashed onto a beach, killing 131 people.

Even Nepal, which has a poor air travel safety record, has reported crashes involving table-top runways in the past. On May 27, 2017, a cargo plane at crashed at the Tenzing-Hillary airport in Solukhumbu, which has such a runway.

In the crash that took place this morning, the Bombardier CRJ 200 flight skidded off the runway and burst into flames, a spokesperson of the airport has told NDTV. Tribhuvan airport in Kathmandu, where the crash took place, is on the top of a plateau and is surrounded by deep gorges and valleys on all sides. Kathmandu airport is among the most risky airports to land and was the site of a huge crash back in 1992, when 167 passengers of a Pakistan International Airlines plane had died. The Saurya Airlines flight that crashed today had crew and technical staff on board and was on its way to Pokhara.