A plane crashed near Pokhara airport in Nepal, killing dozens.
A plane with 72 people on board crashed near an airport in central Nepal, killing dozens.
En route from Kathmandu to Pokhara, a popular tourist destination, a Yeti Airlines plane crashed on landing and caught fire.
Videos on social media show planes flying low over populated areas suddenly crashing.
Authorities reported that at least 68 deaths have been officially confirmed. Some survivors with serious injuries were taken to hospital, according to unverified sources. Local resident Deeveta Kal said he saw the plane disappear from the sky shortly after 11am.
00:00 local time, rush to the crash site (05:00)
15 Greenwich Mean Time).
“When I arrived, the crash site was already crowded. Flames on the plane spewed out a lot of smoke. A helicopter soon followed,” she said.
Deevta Kal said, “The pilot did his best to avoid crashing into homes and civilization.” There is a small area right next to the Seti River where the plane crashed. The plane took off with 68 passengers, including at least 15 foreigners, and four crew members.
The 15-year-old twin-engine ATR 72 stopped sending position data at 0500.
At 05 GMT, the last signal from the aircraft was received at 05.
12, according to flight tracking website Flightradar24.
Hundreds of Nepalese soldiers are working at the Seti Valley crash site, just 1.5 km from the airport.
Video footage showed burning debris and thick black smoke billowing from the plane crash site.
An army spokesman told Reuters news agency that the jets were “dismembered”, adding: “We hope to recover more bodies.”
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting to speed up the rescue operation. The panel is investigating the cause of the crash.
53 of his travelers are reported to be from Nepal. There were two Koreans, five Russians, and five Indians on board. He also had one traveler each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Aircraft accidents are not uncommon due to Nepal’s remote runways and potentially dangerous sudden weather changes. In May 2022, Tara Airlines crashed in the Mustang region of northern Nepal, killing 22 passengers.
In early 2018, a US Bangla flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh to Kathmandu crashed, catching fire on landing and killing 51 people.
Amid concerns over the country’s aviation industry training and maintenance standards, the European Union has banned Nepalese airlines from operating in its airspace.
