Nepal Plane Crash Live Updates: At least 68 people were killed on January 15 after an aircraft carrying 72 people, including five Indians, crashed in Nepal’s Pokhara region, an army spokesman said. The government of Nepal has declared a one-day national mourning tomorrow in wake of one of country's worst air crash in nearly 30 years.
Yeti Airlines' 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft took off from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am. Pokhara is a major tourist destination in the Himalayan nation.
While landing at the Pokhara airport, the aircraft crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport. There were a total of 68 passengers and four crew members.
Nepal airport spokesperson says search operation at crash site will resume on Monday. Bodies of the remaining four individuals are still not found. (Reuters)
"ATRbeen informed that an accident occurred in Nepal involving anATR72-500 aircraft. Our thoughts are with the affected individuals.TheATRspecialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation andthe customer," it said.
Yeti Airlines took to the skies with its first commercial flight more than two decades ago and currently has a fleet of sixATRplanes.
Of the five Indians who were feared dead in the plane crash four were planning to participate in paragliding activities in the tourist hub of Pokhara, a local resident said.
The five Indians were identified as Abhisekh Kushwaha, 25, Bishal Sharma, 22, Anil Kumar Rajbhar, 27, Sonu Jaiswal, 35, and Sanjaya Jaiswal, a Yeti Airlines official said.
Among the five Indian nationals, four had just arrived in Kathmandu from India on Friday. (PTI)
"We heard a loud sound and came rushing to the spot (where the plane crash happened). There we could spot a few injured people and dead bodies in the debris," said an an eye-witness Deepak Sahi.
"We were in our houses when we heard a loud sound and saw a huge cloud of smoke (at the spot where a plane crashed). We rushed to the spot with our friends and made efforts to save the injured people," another eye-witness of the incident Mahmood Khan shared.
The rescue efforts were hampered because the airplane had crashed on treacherous terrain on the banks of Seti River, making it difficult for the villagers to go near the site of the crash.
Arun Tamu, a local, whose house was situated nearthesite oftheplane crash, recountsthechain of events followingthelatest aviation disaster that hit Nepal.
“We heard a loud sound, and when we rushed tothescene (ofthecrash), we weretheonly people fromthevillage. It took some time forthepolice to arrive atthescene, even as we began our rescue efforts,” Tamu was quoted as saying by MyRepublica newspaper. (PTI)
The Nepal government has instructed concerned authorities to conduct a technical inspection of all domestic flights after a Nepalese passenger plane with 72 people on board, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened Pokhara airport on Sunday, killing at least 68 people.
Nepal Plane Crash LIVE updates: Shankar P Sharma, Nepal Ambassador to India says, "This is very unfortunate we have already expressed our condolences. There were 5 Indians on the aircraft as per the press release shared by the airlines but details are yet to arrive."
Here are details of plane and helicopter crashes this century in the Himalayan country, where several airlines fly to small airports in remote hills and mountains shrouded in clouds and cut off from roads.
JAN 15, 2023
A twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft carrying 72 people, operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines, crashed in Pokhara, killing at least 64.
MAY 29, 2022
Sixteen Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans died on a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft that crashed 15 minutes after taking off from Pokhara, 125 km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu, on a Sunday morning.
FEB. 27, 2019
A helicopter crashed in bad weather in eastern Nepal, killing all seven people on board, including the tourism minister.
MARCH 12, 2018
Fifty-one of 71 people on a Bangladeshi airliner died when it crashed in cloudy weather as it came in to land at the Nepalese capital's hill-ringed airport.
Read more about the accident-prone regionhere
The Pokhara International Airport, which witnessed the fatal crash, was inaugurated two weeks ago by Nepal's newly-appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda and built with Chinese assistance.
Built in the backdrop of the pristine Annapurna Mountain Range, the airport was officially inaugurated on January 1, 2023.
The flagship project was part of Chinas Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation.
The Nepal government signed a $215.96 million soft loan agreement with China in March 2016 for the construction of the airport in this tourist hub, according to Kathmandu Post newspaper. (PTI)
