A deadly airplane crash near Pokhara in Nepal left at least 69 people dead on Sunday, January 15.
A passenger on the plane was doing a Facebook live video moments before and during the crash. The horrifying video, which went virile on Twitter, shows the plane and passenger just moments before the deadly crash. The aircraft was flying at a low altitude and almost crashed into another plane that was landing, took a sharp left, and then a loud explosion was heard and flames can be seen.
The passenger, Sonu Jaiswal, a thirty-five-year-old liquor store owner, was killed in the tragic crash. He was among the five Indians killed in Nepal on Sunday.
The flight’s black box was recovered.
According to Nepal’s civil aviation authority, the plane, an ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti Airlines, had 72 people on board, including 68 passengers and four crew members. Amongst the passengers were three children, three infants, and 37 men and 25 women.
Army spokesman Krishna Prasad Bhandari told reporters that they called off Sunday’s search efforts after dark and resumed early Monday morning.
Videos of the crash’s aftermath showed the wreckage still on fire while rescue workers were recovering bodies from the area the plane crashed in while attempting to land at an airport in Pokhara.
Footage showed dozens of rescue workers, soldiers, and residents gathered at the crash site.
Data from the Aviation Safety Network shows that Sunday’s crash was the third deadliest plane in Nepal’s history. The two other times that more people died due to a plane crash in the country were in July and September of 1992. A Thai Airways-operated plane crashed and killed 113 people in July 1992, while a Pakistani International Airlines flight left 167 people dead in September.
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said all four crew members and 53 passengers were Nepali. The remaining 15 passengers were foreign nationals, including five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans, and individual citizens of Ireland, France, Argentina, and Australia.
The plane flew from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, the second most populous city in the country and a gateway to the Himalayas. The two cities are 80 miles from each other.
The plane’s last contact with Pokhara Airport was at 10:50 am local time, less than 20 minutes after takeoff. It crashed in the Seti River Gorge.
According to a statement from civil aviation, first responders from various police departments and the army were deployed to the crash site to undertake a rescue operation.
Nepal’s Deputy Prime Minister Bishnu Paudel, the government spokesperson, announced that the government formed a five-member committee to investigate the deadly crash. The committee would submit a report of their findings to the government within 45 days.
Nepal declared Monday a public holiday to mourn the victims of the crash.
Yeti airlines announced it had canceled all regular flights scheduled for Monday, January 16, to mourn the victims.
Nepal has eight of the world’s highest mountains, including Mount Everest, and weather can suddenly change in the country, making air travel particularly difficult.
In May 2022, a flight carrying 22 people crashed into a mountain, making it the country’s 19th plane crash in a decade, and according to the Aviation Safety Network, its 10th fatal one in the same period.
