68 Including Five Indians Killed in Nepal Plane Crash
Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 15: Five Indians were among the 68 people killed in a plane crash in Nepal on Sunday. The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines was en route from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu with 72 people on board including 68 passengers and four crew members Pokhara but crashed and fell into a gorge just seconds before it was to land at its destination.
“So far, dead bodies of 68 people have been recovered from the crash site,” an official at the Search and Rescue, Coordination Committee of the Civil Aviation Authorityof Nepal (CAAN) said. The officials said weather was not a problem and the plane might have crashed due to some technical reasons since flames were seen in the aircraft in the mid-air before it crashed between the old and new airports in the city and fell into the gorge.
15 foreign nationals, and six children, were on board. 53 Nepali, 5 Indian, 4 Russian, 2 Koreans, 1 Argentinian, and one each from Ireland, Australia, and France were in the plane, the airlines said in a statement. Though four bodies were yet to be found, the authorities doubted any survivor in the air crash considering the situation.
According to the CAAN, the aircraft took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am. It was close to landing at the Pokhara airport, when it crashed into a river gorge on the bank of the Seti River.
The crash happened around 20 minutes after the take-off, suggesting the aircraft might have been on the descent. The flight time between the two cities is 25 minutes.
Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ called an emergency cabinet meeting soon after the crash, and the Nepal government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry to probe the incident.
Nepal’s airline business has been plagued with concerns around safety, and inadequate training of staff. The European Union has since 2013 put Nepal on the flight safety blacklist, ordering a blanket ban on all flights from the Himalayan country into its airspace, after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) flagged safety concerns.
The Nepal government has instructed concerned authorities to conduct a technical inspection of all domestic flights after Yeti plane crash. The Cabinet meeting held in Baluwatar to assess the situation after the crash formed a five-member investigation commission under the leadership of former aviation secretary Nagendra Ghimire to probe the accident.
The Pokhara International Airport was inaugurated only two weeks ago by Nepal’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and built with Chinese assistance. The airport was officially inaugurated on January 1, 2023. The flagship project was part of China’s 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. Last year, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi handed over the Pokhara Regional International Airport to the then Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba, during a courtesy call held at Baluwatar.
According to the CAAN, the airplane had received permission to land. “Weather was not a problem, preliminary information has been received that the plane crashed due to technical reasons. Information has been received that flames were seen in the plane while it was still air-borne.” “The plane would have reached the runway in 10 seconds. However, it met with an accident mid-way,” the airport’s air traffic controller said.
According to plane tracking data from flightradar24.com, the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.” Rescuers scoured the crash site near the Seti River, which is about 1.6 kilometres away from Pokhara International Airport, using ropes to pull out bodies from the wreckage, parts of which were hanging over the edge of the gorge.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Sunday condoled the loss of lives in Pokhara plane crash in Nepal and said “our thoughts are with the affected families.” “Deeply grieved on hearing about the air crash in Pokhara, Nepal. Our thoughts are with the affected families,” Mr. Jaishankar said in a tweet.
