A plane carrying 68 passengers and four crew members crashed in the city of Pokhara, Nepal, on Sunday while trying to land. At least 68 people were killed, according to the airline that operated the plane and the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Aircraft ATR-72, one twin-engine propeller manufactured more than 15 years ago, operated by Yeti Airlines, on a roughly 30-minute flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, a picturesque resort destination near the Annapurna Mountains. A spokesperson for Yeti Airlines confirmed the information about the crash and the number of people on board.
Videos on social media showed the plane engulfed in flames and plumes of black smoke at the crash site, where emergency services were trying to get victims out.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal speak in a statement that at least 68 people died in the crash. A statement from Yeti Airlines cited the same figure.
The Nepalese military said it had recovered 66 bodies from the site on Sunday evening. Rescuers have taken 29 bodies to the hospital for identification and at least 33 bodies are still at the scene, according to Brig. General Krishna Prasad Bhandari, spokesman for the Nepal Army.
Tek Bahadur KC, chief executive officer of Kaski district, where the crash happened, said rescuers struggled to reach the scene initially because of the thick smoke and because the plane plunged into a gorge. .
He said hundreds of rescuers, including the Nepal Police, the Nepalese Army and the local community, have been mobilized to the area. The plane broke into three large pieces.
To reach remote parts of the country, many in Nepal rely on small, twin-engine planes, which have suffered a number of crashes in recent years, according to the agency. Aviation safety net. Poor visibility, rapidly changing weather conditions over mountainous terrain and aging fleets are among the dangers of flying in Nepal.
In May of last year, an airplane carrying 22 people and operated by Nepal Tara Air, crashed during a 20-minute flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist destination with hikers. No survivors.
And in 2016, all 23 people on board were killed when another Pokhara-Jomsom flight, also operated by Tara Air, crashed shortly after takeoff.
For Nepal, one of the poorest countries in South Asia, tourism is the main source of foreign exchange and revenue, contributing at least 6.7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The industry is still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, employing more than a million people.
Of the 68 passengers on Sunday’s flight, 53 were from Nepal, five from India, four from Russia, two from South Korea and one from Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland, according to the Aviation Authority. not Civil Nepal. The four crew members are all from Nepal.
Yeti Airlines Flight 691 took off from Kathmandu around 10:30am on Sunday. It lost contact with the airport in Pokhara about 20 minutes later, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement released Sunday.
An airline spokesman said the plane should have landed at newly inaugurated Pokhara International Airport, built with a concessional loan of $216 million from China. He said it was nearby before it fell into a gorge near the Seti River.
Kim Yu Young contribution report.
