Himalayas
Plane crashed in Nepal, almost all occupants dead
Only a piece of wreck left: debris from the crashed passenger plane of the local Yeti Airlines. photo
© Krishna Mani Baral/AP/dpa
Nepal attracts tourists from all over the world with its majestic mountains. A plane crashed on approach to land.
A plane crashed in Nepal, killing at least 69 people. Their bodies were recovered at the crash site in the middle of the city of Pokhara, the starting point for numerous trekking tours in the Himalayas, according to the Nepalese Yeti Airlines concerned. It is one of the worst air traffic accidents in years in the poor Himalayan country. The cause is still unclear.
The machine with 72 people on board crashed on Sunday morning on the half-hour flight between the capital Kathmandu and the second largest city Pokhara on the landing approach, according to the Nepalese aviation authority. The last contact with the airport was at 10:50 a.m. local time. From Pokhara, many hiking enthusiasts set off to the Annapurna massif, a popular hiking region. Instead of taking a short-haul flight, Pokhara can also be reached from the capital by a six-hour drive.
The wreck remained in a ravine in the middle of the city, footage on Nepalese television and social media showed it surrounded by dark smoke and fire. Hundreds of police and army personnel were involved in the rescue work, a police spokesman said. Locals were also at the scene of the accident and, according to local media, helped put out the fire. The investigation into the cause of the crash continued.
In addition to 53 passengers from Nepal, there were also five people from India, four from Russia, two from South Korea and one person each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France, according to the airport authorities. There were also four crew members.
Many plane crashes in the land of the world’s highest mountains
Plane crashes are common in Nepal. Among other things, this has to do with the fact that many of the world’s highest mountains are located there, including Mount Everest, and weather conditions can change quickly. From the EU’s point of view, the safety supervision by the Nepalese aviation authorities is also insufficient. Because of safety concerns, Nepalese airlines are therefore not allowed to fly in EU airspace. The airline Yeti Airlines, for which the accident machine was in use, is on an EU blacklist due to safety concerns.
Last year, a passenger plane crashed on the Pokhara-Jomsom flight route, killing 22 people, including 2 Hessians. In 2016, 23 people were killed when a propeller plane crashed in a mountainous region in central Nepal. And in an accident in 1992, an Airbus A300 B4 operated by Pakistan International Airlines crashed into a mountain as it was approaching Kathmandu because it was flying too low. None of the 167 occupants survived.
The plane that crashed was an ATR 72-500, a short-haul regional airliner. The twin-engine ATR-72 machines are also in service elsewhere in the world. According to the company, the Yeti Airlines fleet consists of six aircraft of this type. The Franco-Italian company Avions de Transport Régional (ATR), a joint venture between Airbus and Leonardo, said it was helping with the investigation into the crash. Yeti Airlines said all of the airline’s flights were canceled on Monday.
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal expressed his grief and ordered security forces, all Nepalese government agencies and local people to help with the security work. The Nepalese government declared Monday a national day of mourning in response to the accident.