The latest police presence says at least 67 people died following the crash of an ATR-72 operated by Eti Airlines, which crashed 200 kilometers west of Pokhara district, the country’s most popular tourist destination. From Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal.
“Thirty one [corpos] were taken to hospitals,” police officer AK Chhetri told Agence France-Presse (AFP), adding that 36 bodies were found in the valley where the plane crashed.
Of the 72 people on board — including 68 passengers, six minors, and four crew members — five were Indian nationals, four were Russians, two were Koreans, one was Australian, one was Argentine, one was Irish and one was French, detailed Yeti Airlines spokesman Sutrashan Bardaula. As quoted by AFP.
about that The worst accident in Nepal in five years.
The plane took off from Kathmandu to Pokhara at around 10:30 am (local time) and crashed while approaching the Pokhara International Airport in the Seti River Valley.
The last contact with the airport before the crash was at 10:50 am (local time), the Civil Aviation Authority said.
Rescue teams continued to survey the crash site, about a mile (1.6 km) from Bogra International Airport, using ropes to pull bodies from the wreckage, parts of which hung over the edge of the ravine.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal appealed to security experts and the public to help in the rescue efforts.
Located 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu, Pokhara is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular trekking route in the Himalayas.
Pictures and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke at the crash site as rescue workers and large groups gathered around the wreckage. Nepal Army soldiers are also engaged in rescue operations at the accident site.
As Nepal has a remarkable record in aviation safety, the cause of the plane crash is still unclear.
Last year, 22 people were killed when a plane crashed into a mountain in Nepal. In 2018, a US-Bangla passenger flight from Bangladesh crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 49 of the 71 people on board.
In 1992, all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines flight were killed near Kathmandu in the worst plane crash in Nepalese history.
Nepal’s aviation industry has grown in recent years, transporting goods and people to difficult locations, as well as foreign mountaineers and climbers.
However, the sector faces safety issues due to lack of pilot training and aircraft maintenance.
Since 2013, the European Union has banned Nepalese airlines from accessing European airspace for security reasons.
The country of the Himalayas also has some of the world’s most isolated and challenging trails surrounded by snow-capped peaks that can challenge even experienced pilots.
Pilots say Nepal also lacks the infrastructure to make accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with rugged mountainous terrain where weather changes quickly.
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