At Least 68 Dead In Nepal Plane Crash

A plane crashed into a river gorge in central Nepal on Sunday, killing at least 68 people and leaving Nepalese authorities in a state of confusion to find out what caused the plane to crash.

The Yeti Airlines turboprop hit the Seti River gorge about a mile short of its destination, Pokhara International Airport, according to Brig Gen Krishna Prasad Bhandari, the spokesman for the Nepalese Army. Photos and television footage showed plumes of black smoke and fire at the site, and crowds crowded around the wreck.

Gen Bhandari said the rescue team had recovered 68 bodies by Sunday evening and search operations had been suspended until Monday morning. There were 72 passengers on board, including four crew members.

“It’s dark now and the crash site is a river gorge, which makes it difficult to work at night,” he said.

Rescue teams worked to recover bodies at the site of a Yeti Airlines plane crash.

Photo: Rohit Giri/Portal

The passenger list included 53 Nepalese, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans and one each from Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland, Nepal’s civil aviation authority said. Air traffic control published the names of all passengers on their Twitter account.

Tribhuban Poudel, a 37-year-old publisher and editor of a local newspaper in Pokhara, had traveled home to celebrate with his family on the morning of the Nepalese Hindu festival of Maghe Sankranti after attending a meeting of journalists in Kathmandu, according to the report reports his friend Manoj Basnet, a Kathmandu-based media executive.

Tribhuban Poudel, editor of a local newspaper in Pokhara, Nepal, was on the Yeti Airlines plane that crashed.

Photo: Manoj Basnet

“He has risen through struggles in his life and has always been available to help wherever he could, including his friends,” said Mr. Basnet. Mr. Poudel is survived by his mother, his wife and a 3-year-old son.

Flight number YT-691 took off from the capital Kathmandu at 10:32 a.m. local time, according to the aviation authority, and was normally 30 minutes away. The plane’s last communication with the Pokhara Airport control tower was at 10:50 am from the Seti River Gorge, and it crashed shortly thereafter.

Flightradar24, a flight tracking site, said the ATR 72-500 aircraft was 15 years old and fitted with an old transponder with unreliable data. In a Twitter post, the site said the transponder stopped sending position data at 10:50 a.m. and that the last signal from the transponder was received at 10:57 a.m

The aircraft was manufactured by aircraft manufacturer ATR, a joint venture between Airbus SE and Leonardo SpA.

Pokhara is a popular tourist destination, with many flocking to the lakeside town for hiking and yoga. Nepal relies heavily on revenue from tourists, with industry accounting for about 6.7% of the country’s GDP, according to the World Bank. In 2019, the tourism industry supported over a million jobs in Nepal.

Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called an emergency cabinet meeting after the crash. The government has formed a five-member investigative committee made up of retired government officials and aviation security experts to determine the cause of the crash and make recommendations to avoid such an incident in the future, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation said. The committee of inquiry has 45 days to present its report.

Rescue workers searched the wreckage of the Yeti Airlines turboprop.

Photo: Yunish Gurung/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Plane crashes have occurred in Nepal in recent years, sometimes blamed on poor weather conditions. Nepal is home to eight of the 14 highest mountain peaks in the world, including Mount Everest.

Last May, a Tara Air plane carrying 22 people crashed into the Himalayan mountains, killing everyone on board. The plane, which was taking off from Pokhara, crashed after swerving due to bad weather, government officials said.

In 2018, a US Bangla Airlines plane flying out of the Bangladeshi capital crashed and caught fire at Kathmandu Airport, killing 51 of the 71 people on board. A state investigation blamed pilot error for the crash and said he was under severe emotional distress.

On Sunday, Mr Basnet recalled his last words with Mr Poudel about two months ago. “He asked me when I plan to visit Pokhara next,” Mr. Basnet said.

Mr. Poudel had helped Mr. Basnet with local contacts and business contacts when he was trying to establish himself as a media professional in Pokhara about a decade ago, Mr. Basnet recalled. They hadn’t seen each other for a while but Mr Poudel told him he had been following Mr Basnet’s posts on social media.

“You’re really good at life. Keep doing good,” Mr. Basnet recalled being told by his friend.

Write to Krishna Pokharel at [email protected] and Shan Li at [email protected]