Authorities in Nepal say 68 people have been confirmed dead after a regional passenger plane with 72 people on board crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara. It was the country’s deadliest plane crash in three decades.
Tek Bahadur KC, senior administrative officer of Kaski district, made the announcement on Sunday as rescuers searched the crash site near the Seti River, about 1.6 kilometers from Pokhara International Airport.
At the crash site, rescuers used ropes to pull the bodies from the wreckage. Some bodies, burned beyond recognition, were taken by firefighters to hospitals where heartbroken relatives had gathered.
Bahadur said he expected rescuers to find more victims at the bottom of the gorge.
It is not yet clear what caused the plane to crash.
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was flying from the capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, a 27-minute flight. It was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners include five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Aviation authorities said the plane last made contact with the airport from near Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. before it crashed.
The fuselage is divided into several parts
Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers, Nepalese soldiers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage to find survivors. The plane’s fuselage was separated into numerous pieces that were scattered in the gorge.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who rushed to the airport after the crash, set up a team to investigate the incident.
Locals look at the wreckage of a passenger plane in Pokhara, Nepal, on Sunday. A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed near Pokhara International Airport, killing at least 32. (Younish Gurung/Associated Press)
“The incident was tragic. The full force of Nepal Army, police has been sent for rescue,” he said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was still trying to confirm the fate of two South Korean passengers and had sent personnel to the scene.
The type of aircraft used, the ATR 72, is used by several airlines around the world for short regional flights. Introduced in the late 1980s by a French and Italian partnership, the aircraft model has been involved in several fatal accidents over the years. In 2018, an ATR 72 of Iran’s Aseman Airlines crashed in a foggy mountainous area, killing all 65 people on board.
ATR identified the aircraft involved in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet. According to aircraft 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 over in 2019, according to Airfleets.net records. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 aircraft, company spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said.
Rescuers inspect the crash site. (Younish Gurung/AFP/Getty Images)
Pokhara, located 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu, is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas.
Pokhara International Airport became operational just two weeks ago. It was built with Chinese construction and financial support. China’s ambassador to Nepal, Chen Song, said in a tweet that he was “very shocked” to learn of the incident.
“Our thoughts are with the Nepali people at this difficult time. I would like to express my deepest condolences to the victims and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families,” he wrote.
Relatives of passengers from the crashed plane arrive at Kathmandu airport in Nepal on Sunday. (Bikram Rai/Associated Press)
Sunday’s crash was the deadliest in Nepal since 1992, when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed into a hill while trying to land in Kathmandu.
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, has a history of air crashes. According to the aviation safety database of the Flight Safety Foundation, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
Last year, 22 people died when a plane crashed into a mountainside in Nepal. In 2016, a Tara Air Twin Otter flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu crashed after takeoff, killing all 23 people on board.
In 2012, an Agni Air plane flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed, killing 15 people. Six people survived. In 2014, a Nepal Airlines plane flying from Pokhara to Jumla crashed, killing all 18 people on board.
In 1992, all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed into a hill while trying to land in Kathmandu.
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