68 killed as Nepal plane crashes

Kathmandu, January 15

Sixty-eight persons were killed when a Nepalese plane with 72 people onboard, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly opened Pokhara airport in Nepal on Sunday in the country’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years.

Yeti Airlines’ 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am and crashed on the banks of the Seti river between the old airport and the new airport minutes before landing, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).

PM Modi expresses grief

Pained by the tragic air crash in Nepal in which precious lives have been lost. In this hour of grief, my thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

A total of 68 passengers and four crew members were on board. The flight time between Kathmandu and Pokhara is 25 minutes.

4 of 5 Indians on board were on way to Pokhara for paragliding

Abhisekh Kushwaha, 25 | Bishal Sharma, 22 | Anil Kumar Rajbhar, 27 | Sonu Jaiswal, 35 | Sanjaya Jaiswal

“So far, bodies of 68 people have been recovered from the crash site,” said an official at the Search and Rescue Coordination Committee of the CAAN. The bodies are yet to be identified, and efforts are on to recover four more bodies, he said. Officials late in the evening called off the search operations for the day, saying they will resume on Monday.

Those on board the twin-engine aircraft included three infants and three children, the CAAN statement said. The passengers included five Indians, four Russians and one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentine national.

Local TV footage earlier showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible. The weather had been clear and there was no immediate indication of what caused the crash.

Four of the five Indians, who were on board the plane, had arrived in Kathmandu on Friday, and were planning to participate in paragliding activities in the tourist hub of Pokhara, a local resident said.

The Indian embassy is in touch with the local authorities and is monitoring the situation, the mission said. “Our thoughts are with the affected families,” India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted and shared the helpline numbers of the Indian Embassy.

Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 claimed that the Yeti Airlines aircraft was 15 years old and equipped with an ‘old transponder with unreliable data’. There is no information about any survivor so far, said Sudarshan Bartaula, spokesperson at Yeti Airlines. “The weather was absolutely fine and the engine of the aircraft was also in good condition. We don’t know what has happened to the airplane,” he said.

However, some local media reported that the aircraft took a wider turn while attempting to land, which may have caused the accident. It was a new airport built under a Chinese soft loan and inaugurated just two weeks ago.

According to Tek Bahadur KC, Chief District Officer of Kaski district, the plane crashed into the Seti river gorge. Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ held an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers following the crash.

The emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers has declared a public holiday on January 16 to mourn the victims. Prachanda has expressed grief over the crash and issued directions to carry out immediate rescue and relief operations.

The government has formed a five-member probe committee for investigation. The government has also directed that every domestic airline’s aircraft undergo rigorous inspection before taking a flight. Following the crash, the Pokhara International Airport was closed for the day for all incoming and outgoing flights.

The last major air accident in Nepal happened on May 29 when all 22 people onboard, including four members of an Indian family, were killed as a Tara Air plane crashed in Nepal’s mountainous Mustang district. — Agencies

Built with China loan, airport opened days ago

Local media in Nepal reported that the aircraft took a wider turn while attempting to land in Pokhara, which may have caused the accident. It was a new airport built under a Chinese soft loan and inaugurated just two weeks ago.

Panel to hold probe

The government of Nepal has formed a five-member probe committee under Nagendra Ghimire, former Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, to investigate the accident.

Deadliest crash in 30 years in Himalayan nation

July 1992: 113 killed in Thai Airways flight

September 1992: 167 die in Pakistan International Airlines flight

Courtesy: Aviation Safety Network data