At least 68 people have died after a Yeti Airlines plane crashed in Pokhara, central Nepal, in the tiny Himalayan country’s worst aviation disaster in three decades.
Key points:
- It is Nepal’s worst air crash since 167 people died in a crash in 1992
- An Australian was among the 72 passengers on board
- The Prime Minister of Nepal has called an emergency cabinet meeting
Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Kathmandu flight crashed on Sunday, a Nepalese air force official said.
Among the 72 passengers on board were several foreigners, including five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans and one Australian.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) told the ABC it was aware of reports of an Australian on board and was urgently seeking to confirm the welfare of that passenger.
The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, the Air Safety Network database showed, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hill on approach to Kathmandu, killing the 167 people on board.
“We have sent 31 bodies to the hospital and we are still removing 33 bodies from the gorge,” said police official Ajay KC, adding that rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site in a gorge between two hills near from the airport of the tourist city.
“We expect to recover more bodies,” army spokesman Krishna Bhandari told Reuters.
“The plane has been torn to pieces.”
Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and a crowd of people gathered around the wreckage.
The [aircraft] contacted the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. (local time), the aviation authority said in a statement.
“Then it crashed,” said Arun Tamu, a local resident, who told Reuters he arrived at the site minutes after the plane went down.
“Half of the plane is on the hillside. The other half has fallen into the Seti River Gorge.”
Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.
“I saw the plane shaking, moving right and left, and suddenly the nose dived and went into the gorge,” Chhetri told Reuters, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital
The government has set up a team to investigate the cause of the accident and is expected to report within 45 days, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel told reporters.
At least 350 dead since 2000
The plane was 15 years old, according to flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
The ATR72 is a widely used aircraft manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Leonardo of Italy. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 aircraft, according to its website.
At least 350 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, where the weather can change suddenly and create dangerous conditions.
The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013, citing security concerns.
The trip to Pokhara, Nepal’s second largest city, nestled beneath the picturesque Annapurna mountain range, from the capital Kathmandu is one of the Himalayan country’s most popular tourist routes, with many preferring a short flight instead of a six-hour journey through mountainous roads. .
Pokhara airport spokesman Anup Joshi said the plane crashed on approach to the airport, adding that “the plane was cruising at 12,500 feet and was in a normal descent.” .
The weather on Sunday was clear.
ABC/children