- A plane carrying 72 people crashed close to an airport in the heart of Nepal.
- The Yeti Airlines aeroplane crashed upon landing before catching fire.
- The cause of crash will be investigated by an independent panel.
A plane carrying 72 people crashed close to an airport in the heart of Nepal, killing dozens of people. From Kathmandu to the popular tourist destination of Pokhara, the Yeti Airlines aeroplane crashed upon landing before catching fire.
Social media videos depict an aeroplane passing closely above a populated area before abruptly banking. Officials reported that at least 68 deaths have been officially confirmed. Unconfirmed sources said that some seriously injured survivors were transferred to hospitals.
Local resident Divya Dhakal described how she saw the plane plummet from the sky just after 11:00 a.m. local time and hurried to the disaster site (05:15 GMT).
“By the time I was there the crash site was already crowded. There was huge smoke coming from the flames of the plane. And then helicopters came over in no time,” she said.
With 68 passengers, including at least 15 foreign nationals, and four crew members, the aeroplane took off.
The 15-year-old twin-engine ATR 72 stopped broadcasting location data at 05:05 GMT, and the last signal from the aircraft was received at 05:12, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
The effort at the crash site in the Seti gorge, approximately 1.5 kilometres from the airport, attracted hundreds of Nepalese soldiers.
According to officials, the search operation has been halted for the day.
The plane’s crash site was captured on video with burning debris and dense, billowing black smoke.
In order to expedite rescue efforts, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal convened an emergency meeting of his cabinet. The cause of the crash will be looked at by a panel.
53 of the travellers are reportedly from Nepal. On the plane, there were two Koreans, five Russians, and five Indians. In addition, there was one traveller from each of Ireland, Australia, Argentina, and France. Because of Nepal’s distant runways and potentially dangerous rapid weather changes, aviation accidents are not rare there.
22 passengers were killed when a Tara Air plane crashed in the Mustang area of northern Nepal in May 2022. A US-Bangla flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh, that was bound for Kathmandu in the beginning of 2018 crashed and caught fire as it was landing, killing 51 people.
Amid worries about the country’s aviation industry’s standards for training and maintenance, the European Union has prohibited Nepalese airlines from operating in its airspace.
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