A plane with 72 people on board crashed in Nepal on Sunday, January 15, a spokesman for Yeti Airlines said. He does not know “if there are survivors”.
A plane with 72 people on board crashed in Nepal on Sunday, January 15, a Yeti Airlines spokesman said: “There are 68 passengers on board and four crew members… Rescue is on its way, we don’t know at this time if there are any.” gives survivors”.
The plane crashed between the old and new Pokhara airports in central Nepal. The cabin was on fire and rescue workers were trying to put out the fire, local official Gurudutta Dhakal said.
“Emergency services have already arrived at the scene and are trying to put out the fire,” added Gurudutta Dhakal, adding that they “first focused on putting out the fire and rescuing the passengers.”
Inadequate training and maintenance.
Nepal’s aviation industry has boomed in recent years, transporting goods and people, as well as trekkers and foreign mountaineers, to hard-to-reach areas. But it suffered from a lack of security due to insufficient training and maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepalese airlines from accessing its airspace for safety reasons.
The Himalayan country also has some of the most remote and difficult routes in the world, flanked by snow-capped peaks that challenge even experienced pilots. Airplane operators say Nepal lacks the infrastructure to produce accurate weather forecasts, particularly in remote areas with rugged mountainous terrain, which have had a history of fatal accidents.
Even in the mountains, the weather changes quickly, making for even more challenging flight conditions.
Even stricter regulations
In May 2022, all 22 people on board a plane belonging to the Nepalese company Tara Air – 16 Nepalese, four Indians and two Germans – died when the plane crashed.
Air traffic control lost contact with the two-propeller aircraft shortly after takeoff from Pokhara heading for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination. His wreck was found a day later on a mountainside at an altitude of about 4,400 meters. Around 60 people took part in the search mission, most of them walking for kilometers.
After this crash, authorities tightened regulations, specifically that the planes could only fly when the weather forecast was favorable throughout the trip.
Lots of plane disasters
In March 2018, a US Bangla Airlines plane crashed near Kathmandu’s notoriously difficult-to-access international airport, killing 51 people. The accident was the deadliest in Nepal since 1992, when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane died in a crash on approach to Kathmandu.
Two months earlier, a Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.