At least 40 dead as plane with 72 people on board including ten foreign nationals crashes near airport in Nepal
- At least 40 people have been killed in an airplane crash in Pokhara in Nepal
- There were 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft run by Yeti Airlines
- Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site
- Hundreds of rescuers scoured the hillside where the 15-year-old plane crashed
At least 40 people were killed on Sunday when a domestic flight crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, a Nepal aviation authority official said, in the small Himalayan country’s worst crash in nearly five years.
Hundreds of rescue workers continued to scour the hillside site where the plane of domestic carrier Yeti Airlines, flying from the capital Kathmandu, went down.
‘Rescue operations are on,’ said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepal civil aviation authority. ‘Weather was clear.’
Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft.
There were 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, including two infants and ten foreign nationals
Rescuers gather at the site of a plane crash in Pokhara today
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.
In May 2022, all 22 people died on board a plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air – including 16 Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans – when it crashed o a slope.
There were 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti in today’s disaster, including two infants and four crew members, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.
The plane had five Indians, four Russians, one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentinian national onboard, a Nepal airport official said.
The plane was 15 years old, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
40 bodies are reported to have been recovered from the wreckage of the plane
Locals watch the wreckage of a passenger plane in Pokhara
The ATR72 is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.
Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions.
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting after the plane crash, a government statement said.
Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.
But it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.
The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.
The Himalayan country also has some of the world’s most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.
Aircraft operators have said 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.