Air disaster in Nepal: more than 60 dead

At least 67 people died Sunday in Nepal in the deadliest air disaster in three decades in the Himalayan country. According to authorities, 72 people – 68 passengers, including six children, and the four crew members – were aboard the twin-engine turboprop plane that plunged into a steep gorge, broke into many pieces, and burst into flames.

Five of them are still missing.

This ATR 72 of the Yeti Airlines airline, coming from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, crashed shortly before 11:00 (05:15 GMT) near the local airport of Pokhara, in central Nepal, where it was due to land.

The burning wreckage of the aircraft was found at the bottom of a 300-meter-deep ravine located between the old airport, built in 1958, and the new international terminal, which opened on January 1st in this city that serves as a gateway for pilgrims and trekkers from around the world. That evening, amidst the charred vegetation, soldiers were using ropes and stretchers to extract bodies from the scattered debris of the ATR, an AFP journalist observed.

– Like a bomb –

“We are actively working to recover and identify the bodies as quickly as possible and to hand them over to the families,” a police official, AK Chhetri, told AFP.

A representative of the local authorities had previously asserted that “a few survivors” had been taken to the hospital, but this information has not been confirmed by Yeti Airlines or other officials.

Sudarshan Bartaula, the airline’s spokesman, told AFP that 15 foreigners were on board the plane: five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and four passengers from Argentina, Australia, France, and Ireland, respectively. The others were Nepalese. AFP

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