Nepal Plane Crash Claims Around 70 Lives

POKHARA: A violent accident occurred in the morning hours of Sunday near the Pokhara Airport in Nepal. A twin-engine turboprop plane carrying 68 passengers and 4 crew members crashed just outside the Pokhara Aiport in the Himalayan country of Nepal.

An ATR 72 flight belonging to the Yeti Airlines of Nepal went out of control and crashed just before landing. This accident took place during a scheduled flight from the country's capital Katmandu and the scenic Pokhara. Rescue and recovery measures carried on throughout the day and restarted in the morning of Monday after it stopped at nightfall of the previous day.

Although any weather-related reason was immediately denied owing to the clear skies, the exact reason for the crash was not known. The search for the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder is also on at the crash site.

According to reports, 68 dead bodies out of the total 72 passengers have been recovered by the rescuers comprising of Nepal Police, Nepal Armed Police, Nepalese Army and local people. Search to locate the 4 four missing people is still going on and this incident has been mentioned to be the worst flight disaster in the country in the past 30 years.

The scheduled flight has passengers from many countries onboard when the accident took place. Out of them, fifty-seven were Nepalese, five were Indians, four Russians and two were South Koreans. Apart from these, there was one Argentinian, Irelandish, Australian and French citizen aboard the ill-fated flight.

Several videos have surfaced related to this crash. One of them, captured by a local person showed the ATR 72 turn abruptly to one side before a loud blast was heard. Another video was sourced from the live feed of a passenger on a popular social media website where it was seen that the violent shock took place followed by fire and explosions.

The country has declared a day of national mourning on Monday in memory of those who lost their lives. The bodies will be handed over to the families after proper identification and examination as mentioned by the authorities. An investigative team has been set up to find the reason for the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in future.

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