KATHMANDU, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Searchers used drones and abseiled down a 200-meter (656-foot) deep gorge on Tuesday in Nepal’s second-largest city to search for two people missing after the death of ‘deadliest air crash in the country in 30 years. at least 70 people.
Difficult terrain and inclement weather hampered rescue efforts near the resort city of Pokhara, where the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 turboprop carrying 72 people crashed in clear weather on Sunday just before landing.
Rescue teams were also struggling to identify the bodies, Ajay KC, a Pokhara police officer who is part of the rescue efforts, told Reuters.
“There is thick fog here now. We are sending search and rescue personnel with ropes to the gorge where parts of the plane fell and it was on fire,” KC said.
Rescuers had collected what appeared to be human remains and sent them for DNA testing, he said, but search efforts would continue until all 72 passengers and crew were accounted for.
Search teams found 68 bodies on the day of the crash, while two more bodies were recovered on Monday before the search was called off.
“There were small children among the passengers. Some may have been burned to death, and may not have been found. We will continue to search for them,” KC said.
An airport official said 48 bodies were brought to the capital Kathmandu on Tuesday and sent to a hospital for autopsies, while 22 bodies were being handed over to families in Pokhara.
Medical personnel wearing personal protective equipment and masks helped transport the shrouded bodies from stretchers to a vehicle before they were taken to Kathmandu, Reuters footage showed.
Television channels showed weeping relatives waiting for the bodies of their loved ones outside a hospital in Pokhara.
Dr. Tulsi Kandel of Kathmandu University Hospital said it could take up to a week to complete autopsies on the 48 bodies, half of them charred.
On Monday, searchers found the flight’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, both in good condition, a discovery that will likely help investigators determine what caused the crash.
Reuters charts
Under international aviation rules, the accident investigation agencies of the countries where the aircraft and engines were designed and built are automatically part of the inquiry.
ATR is based in France and the plane’s engines were made in Canada by Pratt & Whitney Canada ( RTX.N ).
French and Canadian air crash investigators have said they plan to participate in the investigation.
Reporting by Gopal Sharma, writing by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Editing by Jamie Freed and Jacqueline Wnog
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