KATHMANDU, Jan 15 (Portal) – At least 40 people were killed when a domestic flight crashed in Pokhara, Nepal on Sunday, an aviation authority official said, in the small Himalayan country’s worst crash in almost five years.
Hundreds of rescue workers combed the slope where the Yeti Airlines flight carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu crashed. The weather was clear, said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority.
Local television showed rescuers scrambling around broken parts of the plane. Part of the ground near the crash site was scorched and flames could be seen.
“The plane is on fire,” police officer Ajay KC said, adding that rescue workers had difficulty reaching the site in a ravine between two hills near the tourist town’s airport.
The plane made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 am (0505 GMT), the aviation authority said in a statement. “Then it crashed.”
“Half of the plane is on the slope,” said Arun Tamu, a local resident who told Portal he reached the site minutes after the plane crashed. “The other half has fallen into the Seti River gorge. “
The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since March 2018, when a US Bangla Dash 8 turboprop flight from Dhaka crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.
At least 309 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes since 2000 in Nepal — home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest — where weather can change suddenly and create dangerous conditions. The European Union has banned Nepalese airlines from their airspace since 2013, citing safety concerns.
There were two infants and four crew members on board the twin-engine ATR 72 plane, airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said. On board were five Indians, four Russians, one Irishman, two South Koreans, one Australian, one French and one Argentine.
According to flight tracking website FlightRadar24, the plane was 15 years old.
The ATR72 is a popular twin-engine turboprop aircraft manufactured by a joint venture between Airbus and Leonardo of Italy. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 aircraft, according to its website.
According to FlightRadar24, the plane was fitted with an old transponder with unreliable data. “We download high-resolution data and check the data quality,” it said on Twitter.
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting after the plane crash.
Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal; Adaptation by William Mallard
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