Monitoring Desk
KATHMANDU, NEPAL: An aircraft carrying 72 people crashed in central Nepal’s Pokhara on Sunday, The Rising Nepal, the country’s state media reported.
According to CNN, four crew members and 68 passengers were on board the ATR-72 plane operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, the media reported. The aircraft took off from the capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, some 129 kilometers (80 miles) west of the capital.
The country of Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest Himalayan mountains, including Everest, has a record of air crashes. The country’s weather can change suddenly while the airstrips are typically sited in difficult-to-reach mountainous areas.
In May 2022, a Tara Air flight with 22 people on board crashed into a Himalayan Mountain at an altitude of about 14,500 feet. That was Nepal’s 19th plane crash in 10 years, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Airlines spokesman
Two infants, 10 foreign nationals, and four crew members were among 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula. Army spokesman Krishna Bhandari expected to recover more bodies, according to Reuters news agency.
Local televisions showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site into the sky as rescue workers and people gathered around the debris of the crashed aircraft. Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Nepal Prime Minister has called an emergency cabinet meeting after the plane crash, according to a government statement. “I am deeply saddened by the sad and tragic accident of Yeti Airlines ANC ATR 72 which was flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara with passengers,” he posted on Twitter.
