Information reads from an Indian journalist: "Dr.Orthopedic surgeon working at National Trauma Center in Yeti Airlines' ATR plane crash
Sushil Shrestha, his wife Dr. Sona Diwakar & her son were also involved in an accident.
Dr. Sona Diwakar Dr Sushil Shrestha and babu, Heartfelt condolences to entire family member. Rest in Peace !! to all the passengers, who lost their lives in plane crash. May God give their family strength to bear the great loss."
Those on board the ATR 72 twin-engine turboprop aircraft that plummeted into a steep gorge, smashed into pieces and burst into flames in the central city of Pokhara included six children, officials said.
As light faded late Sunday and soldiers extracted bodies with ropes and stretchers out of the 300-metre-deep (1,000-foot) ravine, there was no word on the fate of the five people still unaccounted for.
“We are actively working to retrieve and identify the bodies as soon as possible and hand (them) over to their families,” police official AK Chhetri told AFP at the crash site, which was still smouldering and strewn with aircraft debris, including the mangled remains of wings and passenger seats.
A local official had earlier said that “some survivors” had been taken to hospital, but this was not confirmed by the aircraft’s operator Yeti Airlines or other officials.
The flight from Kathmandu slammed into the gorge between Pokhara’s domestic and brand new international airport on Sunday, shortly before 11:00 am (0515 GMT).
An unverified clip shared on social media purportedly showed the plane flying low over a residential area before banking sharply to the left, followed by a loud explosion.
“I was walking when I heard a loud blast like a bomb went off,” said witness Arun Tamu, 44, who was around 500 metres (yards) away and who posted live video of the blazing wreckage on social media.
“A few of us rushed to see if we can rescue anybody. I saw at least two women were breathing. The fire was getting very intense and it made it difficult for us to approach closer,” the former soldier told AFP.
It was unclear if anyone on the ground was injured.
Rescue workers rushed to the site littered with debris, trying to put out several raging fires that were sending thick black smoke billowing into the sky.
But it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.
The Himalayan country also has some of the world’s most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge for even accomplished pilots.
The weather is also notoriously capricious and hard to forecast, particularly in the mountains, where thick fog can suddenly obscure whole mountains from view.
Last May, all 22 people on board a plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air — 16 Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans — died when it crashed.
Air traffic control lost contact with that twin-propeller Twin Otter shortly after it took off from Pokhara and headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination.
Its wreckage was found a day later, strewn across a mountainside at around 4,400 metres (14,500 feet) above sea level.
After that crash, authorities tightened regulations, with planes to only be cleared to fly if there was favourable weather forecast throughout the route.
Nepal’s deadliest aviation accident was in 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu.
Just two months earlier, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
Sonu Jaiswal, an Indian Citizen who was in today's Yeti Airlines. He was unknown about what was going to happen & was LIVE on Facebook.
Moments before the tragic plane crash in Nepal today streamed by a passenger on Facebook live…The prime minister of Nepal has declared Monday a national day of mourning, and the country's government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the plane crash that killed at least 68 of the 72 people on board Sunday, according to reports.
"I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly it nosedived, and it went into the gorge," local resident Khum Bahadur Chhetri told Reuters.
The plane, a Yeti Airlines flight, was making a 27-minute flight to a Nepal tourist town when it crashed into a gorge while attempting to land at a newly opened airport.
The plane took off from Kathmandu at 10:32 a.m. local time and checked in again at 10:50 a.m. before crashing. It was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Hours after dark, scores of onlookers crowded around the crash site near the airport in the resort city of Pokhara as rescue workers combed the wreckage on the edge of the cliff and in the ravine below. Officials suspended the search for the four missing people overnight and planned to resume looking Monday.
Nepal’s Yeti Airlines has confirmed there were 68 passengers, including five Indians on the aircraft. So far, 70 bodies have been retrieved by Nepalese authorities.
Anju lost her spouse 16 years ago to a plane crash on June 21, 2006. Her husband was a co-pilot too and, coincidentally, for Yeti Airlines itself. 16 years ago, Yeti Airlines 9N AEQ aircraft on its way to Jumla from Nepalganj via Surkhet crashed wherein six passengers and four crew members were killed. One of the people killed was Anju's husband.
Captain Kamal KC made him sit on the seat of the chief pilot while flying to Pokhara earlier today. Today, after a successful landing, Anju was about to get a chief pilot's license. However, merely 10 seconds away from her goal, her dreams came crashing down and went up in smoke.
On the other hand, the captain onboard the fateful aircraft had 35 years of piloting experience. Kamal KC had trained many pilots in the past and the pilots trained by him are known as successful pilots today.
Crowds have gathered at the site of a plane crash in central Nepal, where a rescue operation is taking place.
Seventy-two people were on board the Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu, officials say,
Rescue crews can be seen dousing fires on the aircraft wreckage as crowds look on.
Some 200 Nepalese soldiers are involved in the rescue in the gorge of the Seti River, just one and a half kilometres from the airport.
No comments:
Post a Comment