Scores of rescue staff and onlookers crowded close to a steep gorge exterior a resort city in central Nepal the place a regional passenger aircraft crashed Sunday, as rescuers combed the wreckage on the sting of the cliff and within the ravine under.
So far, 68 individuals have been confirmed lifeless after a regional passenger aircraft with 72 aboard crashed right into a gorge whereas touchdown at a newly opened airport within the resort city of Pokhara, in response to an announcement posted by the nation’s Civil Aviation Authority to Twitter. It’s the nation’s deadliest airplane accident in three many years.
It was not instantly clear what prompted the accident.
Krishna Mani Baral / AP
A witness mentioned he noticed the plane spinning violently within the air after it started to aim a touchdown, watching from the terrace of his home. Gaurav Gurung mentioned the aircraft fell nose-first in direction of its left after which crashed into the gorge.
At the crash website close to the Seti River, about 1.6 kilometers (practically a mile) away from Pokhara International Airport, rescuers sprayed hearth hoses and heaved ropes down to a different smoldering a part of the wreck under. Some our bodies, burned past recognition, had been carried by firefighters to hospitals, the place grief-stricken relations had assembled. At Kathmandu airport, relations appeared distraught as they had been escorted in and at instances exchanged heated phrases with officers as they waited for info.
“The plane caught fire after the crash. There was smoke everywhere,” Gurung mentioned.
The aviation authority mentioned the plane final made contact with the airport from close to Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. earlier than crashing.
The twin-engine ATR 72 plane, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, a 27-minute flight. It was carrying 68 passengers together with 15 international nationals, in addition to 4 crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority mentioned in a press release. The foreigners included 5 Indians, 4 Russians, two South Koreans, and one every from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France. No survivors have been discovered but.
Tek Bahadur Ok. C., a senior administrative officer within the Kaski district, mentioned he anticipated rescue staff to seek out extra our bodies on the backside of the gorge.
Images and movies shared on Twitter confirmed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash website as rescue staff, Nepali troopers, and crowds of individuals gathered across the wreckage of the plane to seek out survivors. The plane’s fuselage was cut up into a number of components that had been scattered down the gorge.
Yunish Gurung / AP
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who rushed to the airport after the crash, arrange a panel to research the accident.
“The incident was tragic. The full force of the Nepali army, police has been deployed for rescue,” he mentioned.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry mentioned in a press release that it is nonetheless making an attempt to substantiate the destiny of two South Korean passengers and has despatched employees to the scene. The Russian Ambassador to Nepal, Alexei Novikov, confirmed the dying of 4 Russian residents who had been on board the aircraft.
The sort of aircraft concerned, the ATR 72, has been utilized by a number of airways all over the world for brief regional flights. Introduced within the late Eighties by a French and Italian partnership, the plane mannequin has been concerned in a number of lethal accidents over time. In 2018, an ATR 72 operated by Iran’s Aseman Airlines crashed in a foggy, mountainous area, killing all 65 aboard.
In Taiwan, two earlier accidents involving ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 plane occurred simply months aside.
In July 2014, a TransAsia ATR 72-500 flight crashed whereas making an attempt to land on the scenic Penghu archipelago between Taiwan and China, killing 48 individuals onboard. An ATR 72-600 operated by the identical Taiwanese airline crashed shortly after takeoff in Taipei in February 2015 after certainly one of its engines failed and the second was shut down, apparently by mistake.
The 2015 crash, captured in dramatic footage that confirmed the aircraft hanging a taxi because it hurtled uncontrolled, killed 43, and prompted authorities to floor all Taiwanese-registered ATR 72s for a while. TransAsia ceased all flights in 2016 and later went out of business.
ATR recognized the aircraft concerned in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet. According to aircraft monitoring information from flightradar24.com, the plane was 15 years outdated and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.” It was beforehand flown by India’s Kingfisher Airlines and Thailand’s Nok Air earlier than Yeti took it over in 2019, in response to data on Airfleets.internet.
Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, firm spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula mentioned.
Pokhara, situated 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu, is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a well-liked mountaineering path within the Himalayas. The metropolis’s new worldwide airport started operations solely two weeks in the past. It was constructed with Chinese building and monetary assist. The Chinese ambassador to Nepal, Chen Song, mentioned in a tweet he was “very shocked” to study of the accident.
“At this difficult time, our thoughts are with Nepali people. I would like to express my deep condolences to the victims, and sincere sympathies to the bereaved families,” he wrote.
Sunday’s crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 individuals aboard a Pakistan International Airlines aircraft had been killed when it plowed right into a hill because it tried to land in Kathmandu.
Nepal, dwelling to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, together with Mount Everest, has a historical past of air crashes. According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 deadly aircraft crashes in Nepal since 1946.
Last yr, 22 individuals died when a aircraft crashed on a mountainside in Nepal. In 2016, a Tara Air Twin Otter flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu crashed after takeoff, killing all 23 individuals aboard.
In 2012, an Agni Air aircraft flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed, killing 15 individuals. Six individuals survived. In 2014, a Nepal Airlines aircraft flying from Pokhara to Jumla crashed, killing all 18 on board.
In 1992, all 167 individuals aboard a Pakistan International Airlines aircraft had been killed when it plowed right into a hill because it tried to land in Kathmandu.
The European Union has banned airways from Nepal from flying into the 27-nation bloc since 2013, citing weak security requirements. In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization cited enhancements in Nepal’s aviation sector, however the EU continues to demand administrative reforms.