KATHMANDU – At least 68 people were killed on Sunday when a domestic flight crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, a Nepal aviation authority official said, in the worst air crash in three decades in the small Himalayan nation.
Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Yeti Airlines flight, carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu, went down. The weather was clear, said Mr Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepals Civil Aviation Authority.
As night fell, Mr Niroula said the search for four more still missing would resume on Monday.
Local TV showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible.
The crash is Nepals deadliest since 1992, the Aviation Safety Network database showed, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hillside upon approach to Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board.
The aircraft made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 0505 GMT (1.05pm in Singapore), the aviation authority said. Then it crashed.
Half of the plane is on the hillside, said Mr Arun Tamu, a local resident, who said he reached the site minutes after the plane went down. The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river.
Mr Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.
I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly its nose dived and it went into the gorge, Mr Chhetri told Reuters, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital.
The government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the crash, and it is expected to report within 45 days, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel told reporters.
Among the 72 passengers were two infants, four crew members and 15 foreign nationals, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.
The plane had five Indians, four Russians, one Irish, two South Koreans, one Australian, one French and one Argentinian onboard, a Nepal airport official said. Remote video URL The plane was 15 years old, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.
The ATR72 is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italys Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.
ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer, the company said on Twitter, adding that its first thoughts were for those affected, after having been informed of the accident.
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. Embed Twitter Tweet URL Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the worlds 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.
Nepals 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 ATR 72 aircraft was flying to Pokhara from Kathmandu when it crashed in the Pokhara city of Kaski district. PHOTOS: PARAS156/TWITTER The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.
The Himalayan country also has some of the worlds most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.
Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks infrastructure for accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with challenging mountainous terrain, where deadly crashes have taken place in the past. In May 2022, all 22 people on board a plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air 16 Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans died when it crashed.
Air traffic control lost contact with the twin-propeller Twin Otter shortly after it took off from Pokhara and headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination.
Its wreckage was found a day later, strewn across a mountainside at an altitude of around 4,400m.
About 60 people were involved in the search mission, most of whom trekked uphill for miles to get there.
After that crash, the authorities tightened regulations, including that planes would only be cleared to fly only if there was favourable weather forecast throughout the route.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandus notoriously difficult international airport, killing 51 people.
That accident was Nepals deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu.
Just two months earlier, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people. REUTERS, AFP More On This Topic Deadly aircraft crashes common in mountainous Nepal Small plane crashes into residential area of Colombian city: Mayor
