At least 16 people were killed after a passenger airplane with 72 people on board crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal on Sunday (January 15), Nepal army spokesperson told WION. It was a Yeti Airlines flight. Rescue operations were still underway at the time of the filing of this report and the airport had been closed. Death toll is feared to increase. Those on board included three infants and three children.
Reports in Nepalese media say that 32 bodies have been recovered from the wreckage of the crashed plane while the Reuters news agency has pegged the death toll at 40.
Pokhara is a city about 200 kilometres from Nepalese capital Kathmandu.
Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda and Home Minister Ravi Lamichane are at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu overseeing the rescue effort.
As per the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) Yeti Airlines’ 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am.
The aircraft crashed while it was trying to land at Pokhara airport. It crashed on the bank of the Seti river between the old airport and the new. According to Nepal Television, the passengers onboard the airplane had 11 foreigners. These include five Indians.
Nepal government has called an emergency cabinet meeting in the wake of the plane crash.
Plane crashes are common in Nepal, which has a poor flight safety record.
Nepali airlines are banned from European Union airspace since 2013 after eight Britons were killed in a Kathmandu plane crash.
In May 2022, all the 22 people, including four Indians, onboard a Tara Air flight on a Canadian-built turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane were killed after it had crashed in Nepal’s mountainous Mustang district after departing from Pokhara.
The Yeti Air crash on Sunday was the deadliest in Nepal since 1992, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 had crashed. On September 28, 1992, Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) Flight 268 had crashed while approaching Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport (KTM). All 167 passengers and crew were killed, making it the deadliest ever crash involving PIA and the worst crash in the history of Nepalese aviation.
Nepal, a Himalayan country, has some of the world’s most remote and trickiest runways. Many of these are located between high, snow-capped mountain peaks, something that throws up challenges for even the most experienced pilots.
Nepal’s aviation industry has been plagued by poor safety records. Insufficient training and maintenance are said to be the reasons.
Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks infrastructure for accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with challenging mountainous terrain where deadly crashes have taken place in the past.
The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.
(With inputs from agencies)
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