Terrified tourists fled Kathmandu within an hour of touching down at Nepal's International Airport yesterday, after learning of violence surging through the capital.
I had flown in with them on Thai International Airways Flight TG319 from Bangkok and minutes before we boarded the plane, King Dipendra's death was announced on television in the departure lounge.
Many tourists had already cancelled holidays to Nepal. The Airbus A300 was only about 20 per cent full. Stewardesses said the flight would normally be nearly full.
On arrival, tourists were met by several hotel transfer mini-buses, only to be told it was too dangerous for the buses to leave the airport.
From the terminal building we could hear the roar of protesters a few hundred metres from the airport security fence. Buses passed outside with dozens of chanting, shaven-headed protesters on their roofs, punching the air.
I talked to a New Yorker who had just flown in from Bangkok via Hong Kong on my flight. 'I have always wanted to see Nepal, and decided to stop over here for a few days. But it's too dangerous. I'm getting out if I can,' he said. He and another tourist who were booked into the Hyatt Regency Hotel grabbed their bags from the minibus and dashed back into the airport.
Within 30 minutes they were in the air again with other tourists who never left the airport, travelling back to Bangkok in the same plane.