On January 15, the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 plane crashed near the city of Pokhara, in Nepal, leaving at least 69 people dead and three of the 72 on board missing, although the authorities believe that the three Missing women could be in the rubble.
According to the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority, the plane was attempting to land at a newly opened airport after a 27-minute journey from the capital city of Kathmandu to the popular tourist destination of Pokhara, some 200 kilometers to the west, near the Nepal mountain range. Annapurna.
Through a release, aviation officials reported that the aircraft had 72 passengers on board, including six children, as well as four crew members. Regarding the nationality of the crew, 53 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, one Irishman, one Australian, one Argentinean, two Koreans and one Frenchman are known.
According to a video verified by NBCNews, Sonu Jaiswal, a 32-year-old resident of India, broadcast the flight’s approach live on Facebook from his seat. Moments later, the screams of terrified passengers can be heard briefly before flames engulf the scene.
Nepal plane crash: total 72 passengers died ‘ 4 Indians were going to Pokhara for paragliding #NepalPlaneCrash #Nepal pic.twitter.com/UepdeNdXBn
— AHMED (@AhmedViews_) January 15, 2023
Another video filmed by a witness on the ground and geolocated by NBCNews shows that the plane was flying low over a densely populated part of the city before making a sudden left turn and crashing.
On the occasion of the tragedy, the Nepalese government declared this January 16 as a “day of national mourning” in memory of the victims. In addition, it established a panel to investigate the causes of the accident and establish measures to prevent such tragedies in the future.
Horrifying last moments of an ATR plane crash from Nepal in Pokhara that was bound for Kathmandu. All 72 people on board are dead. pic.twitter.com/4JZIvnThPQ
— Wajahat Kazmi (@KazmiWajahat) January 15, 2023
It is worth mentioning that flight safety in Nepal is in a catastrophic state. Yeti Airlines, like all other airlines in the country, is blacklisted by the European Union due to security concerns.
As recently as May, 22 people, including six foreign nationals, were killed after a flight operated by Tara Air, a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, crashed into the Himalayan mountainside after departing from the old Pokhara airport.
According to an Airline Safety Network database, the January 15 crash is the deadliest in Nepal in three decades since 1992, when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines flight died after crashing into a hill while the aircraft I was trying to land in Kathmandu.