Nepal plane crash: Rescuers resume search as day of mourning observed

Published

2 years ago

January 16, 2023

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Rescuers have resumed searching for four people still missing after Nepal’s deadliest plane crash in 30 years, officials have said.

The ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Yeti airlines, was carrying 72 people when it crashed in the tourist city of Pokhara minutes before landing in clear weather on Sunday.

Rescuers have so far recovered 68 bodies.

Nepal has declared Monday a day of mourning and has set up a panel to investigate the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in future.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident.

The plane, on a scheduled flight from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, the gateway to the scenic Annapurna mountain range, was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia and France.

Pokhara police official Ajay KC said the search-and-rescue operation, which stopped because of nightfall on Sunday, has now resumed.

He said: “We will take out the five bodies from the gorge and search for the remaining four that are still missing.”

The other 63 bodies had been sent to a hospital, he said.

Rescuers have also been searching for the black boxes – a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder – as they looked for survivors, a spokesperson for Nepal’s civil aviation authority said.

Authorities have said bodies will be handed over to families after identification and examination.

Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers, soldiers, and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft to find survivors.

The aircraft’s fuselage was split into multiple parts which were scattered down the gorge.

Tek Bahadur KC, a senior administrative officer in the Kaski district, said he expected rescue workers to find more bodies at the bottom of the gorge.

Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site to help with the search, said rescue efforts were hampered because of thick smoke and a raging fire that engulfed the aircraft.

“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage,” he said.

Gaurav Gurung, a witness, said he saw the aircraft spinning violently in the air after it began to attempt a landing.

He added he saw the plane fall nose-first towards its left and then crash into the gorge.

“The plane caught fire after the crash. There was smoke everywhere,” Mr Gurung said.

At the crash site near the Seti River, nearly a mile from Pokhara International Airport, rescuers sprayed fire hoses and heaved ropes down to another smouldering part of the wreck below.

The aviation authority said the plane last made contact with the airport from near Seti Gorge at 10.50am local time.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who rushed to the airport after the crash, has set up a panel to investigate the accident.

“The incident was tragic. The full force of the Nepali army, police has been deployed for rescue,” he said.

The type of plane involved has been used by several airlines around the world for short regional flights.

Introduced in the late 1980s by a French and Italian partnership, the model has been involved in several fatal accidents over the years.

In 2018, an ATR 72 operated by Iran’s Aseman Airlines crashed in a foggy, mountainous region, killing all 65 on board.

ATR identified the plane involved in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet.

According to plane tracking data from flightradar24.com, the aircraft was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data”.

It was previously flown by India’s Kingfisher Airlines and Thailand’s Nok Air before Yeti took it over in 2019, according to records on Airfleets.net.

Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, company spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said.

Sunday’s crash was Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it ploughed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.

Nearly 350 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal – home to eight of the world’s 14
highest mountains, including Everest – where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.

World

‘At least 798 killed’ at Gaza aid points – as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high

Published

10 hours ago

July 11, 2025

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'At least 798 killed' at Gaza aid points - as medical charity warns acute malnutrition at all-time high

At least 798 people in Gaza have reportedly been killed while receiving aid in the past six weeks – while acute malnutrition is said to have reached an all-time high.

The UN human rights office said 615 of the deaths – between 27 May and 7 July – were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” said Ravina Shamdasani, from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Its figures are based on a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries, and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), its partners on the ground, and Hamas-run health authorities.

Aid agency Project Hope said on Thursday that 10 children were among at least 15 people killed as they waited for its clinic in Deir al Balah to open.

The GHF has claimed the UN figures are “false and misleading” and has repeatedly denied any violence at or around its sites.

Meanwhile, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) – also known as Doctors Without Borders – said two of its sites were seeing their worst-ever levels of severe malnutrition.

Cases at its Gaza City clinic are said to have tripled from 293 in May to 983 in early July.

“Over 700 pregnant or breastfeeding women and nearly 500 children are now receiving emergency nutritional care,” MSF said.

The humanitarian medical charity said food prices were at extreme levels, with sugar at $766 (£567) per kilo and flour $30 (£22) per kilo, and many families surviving on one meal of rice or lentils a day.

It’s a major concern for the estimated 55,000 pregnant women in Gaza, who risk miscarriage, stillbirth and malnourished infants because of the shortages.

The GHF began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the coastal territory.

It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip.

The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.

The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what it says is a suspicious manner.

It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies from falling into the hands of militants.

After the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians trying to reach the aid hubs, the United Nations has called the GHF’s aid model “inherently unsafe” and a violation of humanitarian impartiality standards.

In response, a GHF spokesperson said: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”

The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.

World

At least 798 people have been killed at Gaza aid points, the UN says

Published

18 hours ago

July 11, 2025

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At least 798 people in Gaza have been killed while receiving aid in six weeks, the UN human rights office has said.

A spokesperson for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said 615 of the killings were “in the vicinity” of sites run by the controversial US and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

A further 183 people killed were “presumably on the route of aid convoys,” Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.

The office said its figures are based on numbers from a range of sources, including hospitals, cemeteries and families in the Gaza Strip, as well as NGOs, its partners on the ground and the Hamas-run health authorities.

The GHF has claimed the figures are “false and misleading”. It has repeatedly denied there has been any violence at or around its sites.

The organisation began distributing food packages in Gaza at the end of May, after Israel eased its 11-week blockade of aid into the enclave.

It has four distribution centres, three of which are in the southern Gaza Strip. The sites, kept off-limits to independent media, are guarded by private security contractors and located in zones where the Israeli military operates.

Palestinian witnesses say Israeli forces have repeatedly opened fire towards crowds of people going to receive aid.

The Israeli military says it has fired warning shots at people who have behaved in what they say is a suspicious manner.

It says its forces operate near the aid sites to stop supplies falling into the hands of militants.

In response, a GHF spokesperson told the Reuters news agency: “The fact is the most deadly attacks on aid sites have been linked to UN convoys.”

The GHF says it has delivered more than 70 million meals to Gazans in five weeks and claims other humanitarian groups had “nearly all of their aid looted” by Hamas or criminal gangs.

World

Ten children among at least 15 killed waiting for Gaza health clinic to open, says aid group

Published

22 hours ago

July 11, 2025

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Ten children among at least 15 killed waiting for Gaza health clinic to open, says aid group

Ten children and two women are among at least 15 killed in an airstrike near a Gaza health clinic, according to an aid organisation.

Project Hope said it happened this morning near Altayara Junction, in Deir al Balah, as patients waited for the clinic to open.

The organisation’s president called it a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law, and a stark reminder that no one and no place is safe in Gaza“.

“No child waiting for food and medicine should face the risk of being bombed,” added the group’s project manager, Dr Mithqal Abutaha.

“It was a horrific scene. People had to come seeking health and support, instead they faced death.”

Operations at the clinic – which provides a range of health and maternity services – have been suspended.

Some of the children were reportedly waiting to receive nutritional supplements, necessary due to the dire shortage of food being allowed into Gaza.

Israel‘s military is investigating and said it was targeting a militant who took part in the 7 October terror attack.

“The IDF [Israel Defence Force] regrets any harm to uninvolved individuals and operates to minimize harm as much as possible,” added.

The deaths come as an agreement over a 60-day truce hangs in the balance – with President Trump cautiously saying it could happen “this week, or next week”.

Elsewhere in Gaza, the Nasser Hospital reported another 21 deaths in airstrikes in Khan Younis and in the nearby coastal area of Muwasi.

It said three children and their mother were among the dead.

Israel said its troops have been dismantling more than 130 Hamas infrastructure sites in Khan Younis over the past week, including missile launch sites, weapons storage facilities and a 500m tunnel.

On Wednesday, a soldier was shot dead when militants burst out of a tunnel and tried to abduct him, the military added.

Eighteen soldiers have been killed in the past three weeks – one of the deadliest periods for the Israeli army in months.

A 22-year-old Israeli man was also killed on Thursday by two attackers in a supermarket in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said the Magen David Adom emergency service.

People on site reportedly shot and killed the attackers but information on their identity has so far not been released.

Negotiations over a proposed 60-day ceasefire are ongoing and President Trump reportedly put “heavy” pressure on Israel’s leader, who visited the US this week.

A major sticking point is said to be the status of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza during the 60-day ceasefire and beyond, should it last longer.

However, Sky News understands the Israeli government thinks the chances of a permanent truce are “questionable”.

More than 57,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war – more than half are women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

Its figure does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.

The war began in October 2023 after Hamas killed around 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 251 others.

Some of them remain In Gaza and are a crucial part of ceasefire negotiations, which also include a planned surge in humanitarian aid into the strip.