As of: 01/16/2023 5:05 p.m
After a plane crashed in Nepal with 72 people on board, authorities have lost hope of finding any survivors. Three people are still missing. The salvaged black boxes should now provide information about the cause of the accident.
No survivors were found the day after the plane crash in Nepal. “We are praying for a miracle,” an official told the AFP news agency. But the hope of finding survivors “is zero”. So far, salvage teams have found the bodies of 69 of the 72 people on board, and three missing people are still being sought.
Soldiers worked late Sunday night to recover the remains of the crash victims. The bodies should be handed over to the relatives after identification.
Worst plane crash in three decades
The wreck of the machine is in a 300 meter deep gorge in the city of Pokhara, as the coordinator of the rescue work told the dpa news agency. The air traffic accident is the worst in three decades in the poor country.
The Nepalese civil aviation authority had previously announced that it had found the machine’s black boxes. Investigations into the cause of the accident continued. According to the authorities, the machine did not make an emergency call.
Probably video of the last few minutes
Footage circulated online and verified by AFP showed a low-flying plane over a residential area suddenly turning left on approach to Pokhara airport before a loud explosion was heard.
A video that one of the passengers in the crashing machine is said to have filmed is also circulating on social networks. It is said to have been streamed as a Facebook video, showing the last minute and a half before the crash. You can see several laughing people on the plane and a view out of the window. The landing approach seems calm, then suddenly fire can be seen.
According to the dpa, the course of the flight, as far as it can be seen in the video when looking out of the aircraft window, corresponds to the official information. In addition, a man whose name was on the government contact list confirmed that one of the men in the video was his friend and was wearing the same clothes as before departure.
Flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara
The Nepalese Yeti Airlines machine crashed on Sunday morning on the half-hour flight between the capital Kathmandu and Pokhara on approach to land, according to the civil aviation authority. According to the information, there were 53 passengers from Nepal on board, as well as people from India, Russia, South Korea, Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland.
A spokesman for the Irish Foreign Office then clarified that the Irish passenger was in fact a British citizen. Pokhara is the starting point for numerous trekking tours in the Himalayas, including to the Annapurna massif, a popular hiking region.
After a passenger plane crash in Nepal, rescue workers continue to search for missing people
Tagesschau 08:00 a.m., 16.1.2023
Repeated plane crashes in Nepal
Plane crashes are common in Nepal. 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. However, on Sunday – the day of the most recent crash – the weather was clear.
From the EU’s point of view, the safety supervision of the Nepalese aviation authorities is also not sufficient. 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.