Nepal’s worst air crash in 30 years: 68 killed as passenger plane with 72 onboard crashes near Pokhara

At least 68people were killed after apassenger airplane with 72 people on boardcrashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal on Sunday (January 15) minutes beforeits scheduled landing, reported AFP. The officially declared death toll standsat 68 currently. It was a Yeti Airlines flight. Rescue operations were still underway at the time of the filing of this report and the airport had been closed. The condition of the four remaining flyers was not known yet. There were 68 passengers and four crew members, including two pilots and two airhostesses on the plane. Those on board included three infants and three children. There were five Indians on the flight among the 15 foreigners on the flight.

The flight had taken off from Kathmandu and was headed to Pokhara. The plane crashed minutes before landing, broke and caught fire which was doused later.

A press statement by theCivil Aviation Authority of Nepal informed that there were53 passengers from Nepal, 5 from India, 4 from Russian, 2 from Korea,and one each from Ireland, Australia,Argentina andFrance on the flight.

Pokhara,one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nepal, is famous for its natural beauty, and for being the gateway to the Annapurna region andis about 200 kilometres from Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

ATR identified the crashed plane as an ATR 72-500. According to plane tracking data from flightradar24.com, the aircraft was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.”

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Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda and Home Minister Ravi Lamichane wereat Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu overseeing the rescue effort.

The Nepal government formed a five-member commission of inquiry to probe the Yeti Airlines plane crash in Pokhara.The emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers also announced a public holiday on January 16 to mourn the victims of the crash.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel said that the government has decided to observe one day of mourning.

(Image: ANI)

“The incident was tragic. All forces have been deployed for rescue (operations). The investigation is going on now. I have called an emergency cabinet meeting, and Iam going to the cabinet meeting,” Prachandatold the media earlier.

As per the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Yeti Airlines' 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am.

The aircraft crashed while it was trying to land at Pokhara airport. It crashed on the bank of the Seti river between the old airport and the new one.

"So far, dead bodies of 68 people have been recovered from the crash site," an official at the Search and Rescue Coordination Committee of the CAAN told the news agency PTI over the phone.However, the dead bodies are yet to be identified, he added.

The five Indians have been identified as Sanjay Jaiswal, Sonu Jaiswal, Anil Kumar Rajbhar, Abhishek Kushwaha and Vishal Sharma.

India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar shared the helpline numbers of the Indian Embassy in Nepal in a tweet and said,“Deeply grieved on hearing about the air crash in Pokhara, Nepal. Our thoughts are with the affected families.”

Plane crashes are common in Nepal, which has a poor flight safety record.

Nepali airlines are banned from European Union airspace since 2013 after eight Britons were killed in a Kathmandu plane crash.

In May 2022, all the 22 people, including four Indians, onboard a Tara Air flight on a Canadian-built turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane were killed after it had crashed in Nepal’s mountainous Mustang district after departing from Pokhara.

The Yeti Air crash on Sunday was the deadliest in Nepal since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 had crashed. On September 28, 1992, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight 268 had crashed while approaching Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM). All 167 passengers and crew were killed, making it the deadliest ever crash involving PIA and the worst crash in the history of Nepalese aviation.

Nepal, a Himalayan country, has some of the world's most remote and trickiest runways. Many of these are located between high, snow-capped mountain peaks, something that throws up challenges for even the most experienced pilots.

Nepal's aviation industry has been plagued by poor safety records. Insufficient training and maintenance are said to be the reasons.

Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks infrastructure for accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with challenging mountainous terrain where deadly crashes have taken place in the past.

The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.

(With inputs from agencies)

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