Plane with 72 on board crashes in Nepal
72 people were on the plane that crashed.
(Photo: via REUTERS)
Kathmandu In a plane crash in Nepal At least 32 people were killed on Sunday, according to a local administration official. According to the civil aviation authority, there were 68 passengers and four crew members on board the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft of the Nepalese company Yeti. 15 of the passengers came from abroad. The crash happened near the newly opened Pokhara City International Airport.
Rescue workers are at the crash site in a ravine about a kilometer from the airport, said Tek Bahadur KC, a senior administrative official in Kaski district. More bodies are expected to be found. The cause of the crash was initially unknown.
Both passengers from abroad According to the civil aviation authority, there were five people from India, four from Russia, two from South Korea and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Nepalese Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the scene of the accident. He said the plane was en route from the capital Kathmandu to inland Pokhara. He called on security forces and the public to support the rescue operation.
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Located on a lake in the heart of the country, the city is often used by tourists as a starting point for trekking tours in the Annapurna Mountains. Pokhara is 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu. The city’s international airport started operations just two weeks ago.
Photos and videos on Twitter showed smoke billowing from the crash site, as well as rescue workers and scores of people gathered around the plane wreckage.
There have been plane crashes in the past in the Himalayan state of Nepal. Last year, 22 people died, including two Germans, when a plane crashed into a mountainside. In 2018, a Bangladeshi plane crashed on landing in Kathmandu. 49 of the 71 people on board were killed.
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