Scores of rescue workers and onlookers crowded a mountainside outside a resort in central Nepal where a regional passenger plane crashed on Sunday, as rescuers combed the edge of the cliff and the debris in the valley below.
At least 68 people have been confirmed dead after a regional passenger plane with 72 people on board crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara, according to a statement released on Twitter by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority. It was the country’s deadliest air crash in three decades.
In a statement, the agency said four people were still missing. Fifty-three passengers on board were Nepalese, five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans and one from Australia, one from Argentina, one from Ireland and one from France, the agency said. There were four crew members.
It was not immediately clear what caused the crash.
Krishna Mani Baral / AP
A witness said he saw the plane spinning violently in the air as he watched from the terrace of his home after attempting to land. Gaurav Gurung said the aircraft fell nose first to the left and then crashed into the gorge.
Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site near the Seti river to search for bodies, said rescue operations were hampered by thick smoke and raging fire.
“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man screaming for help, but we couldn’t help him because of the flames and smoke,” Tiwari said.
At the crash site, about 1.6 kilometers (nearly a mile) from Pokhara International Airport, rescuers hoisted fire hoses and ropes into another smoldering section of the wreckage. Some of the bodies, charred beyond recognition, were taken to hospitals by firefighters, where grieving relatives gathered. At the Kathmandu airport, family members were nervous as they were picked up and exchanged heated words with officials as they waited for information.
“After the crash, the plane caught fire. There was smoke everywhere,” Gurung said.
The aviation authority said the plane last touched down at the airport near Seti Gorge before crashing at 10:50 am.
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was flying a 27-minute flight from the capital Kathmandu to Pokhara. No survivors have yet been found. The company announced on Sunday that it would suspend all regular flights on Monday.
Tek Bahadur KC, a senior administrative officer in Kaski district, said he expected rescue workers to find more bodies at the bottom of the river.
Images and videos shared on Twitter showed smoke billowing from the crash site, about 1.6 kilometers (nearly a mile) from Pokhara International Airport. The plane’s fuselage was split into several pieces, which were scattered in the gorge.
Yunish Gurung / AP
Firefighters carried the bodies, some burned beyond recognition, to hospitals where grieving relatives had gathered. At the Kathmandu airport, family members were nervous as they were picked up and exchanged heated words with officials as they waited for information.
After the accident, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the airport and set up a committee to investigate the accident.
“The incident is tragic. The entire force of Nepal Army and police have been deployed for rescue,” he said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it was still trying to confirm the fate of two South Korean passengers and that crews had been sent to the scene. The Russian ambassador to Nepal, Alexei Novikov, confirmed the death of four Russian citizens on board the plane.
The governor of Argentina’s Neuquen province, Omar Gutierrez, reported on his official Twitter account that the Argentine passenger on the flight was Janet Palavecino from his province.
Palavecino’s Facebook page says she is a manager at Hotel Suizo in Neuquen.
On the page, she described herself as a lover of travel and adventure tourism. “I love the mountains! Riding my bike while cycling. I love my garden and the countryside. I love to paint!” she wrote
Her account has many photos of her in the mountains.
The ATR 72 aircraft type is used by several airlines worldwide for short regional flights. Introduced in the late 1980s by a French and Italian partnership, the aircraft model has been involved in several fatal accidents over the years. In 2018, an ATR 72 flight operated by Iran’s Aseman Airlines crashed into a foggy mountainous area, killing all 65 people on board.
In Taiwan, two previous accidents involving ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 aircraft occurred within a few months.
In July 2014, a TransAsia ATR 72-500 crashed while trying to land on the scenic Penghu archipelago between Taiwan and China, killing 48 people on board. An ATR 72-600 operated by the same Taiwanese airline crashed shortly after takeoff in Taipei in February 2015 after one of its engines failed and the second shut down, apparently by mistake.
The 2015 crash was captured in dramatic footage as the plane spun out of control and crashed into a taxi, killing 43 people and prompting authorities to temporarily ground all ATR 72s registered in Taiwan. TransAsia stopped all flights in 2016 and later went out of business.
ATR identified the aircraft involved in Sunday’s crash as an ATR 72-500 in a tweet. According to flightradar24.com’s aircraft tracking data, the plane was 15 years old and “equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data.” According to reports on Airfleets.net, Yeti was previously flown by India’s Kingfisher Airlines and Thailand’s Nok Air before its takeover in 2019.
Yeti Airlines has six ATR72-500 aircraft, company spokesperson Sudarshan Bertaula said.
Pokhara, 200 km (125 mi) west of Kathmandu, is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular trekking route in the Himalayas. The city’s new international airport began operations two weeks ago. It was built with Chinese construction and financial support. Chen Song, China’s ambassador to Nepal, tweeted that he was “deeply shocked” to learn of the accident.
“At this difficult time, our thoughts are with the people of Nepal. I wish to express my deepest condolences to the victims and sincere condolences to the bereaved families,” he wrote.
Sunday’s crash is the deadliest in Nepal since a Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed into a mountain on its way to land in Kathmandu in 1992, killing all 167 people on board.
Home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, Nepal has a history of plane crashes. According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal air accidents in Nepal since 1946.
Last year, 22 people lost their lives when a plane crashed into a mountain slope in Nepal. In 2016, a Tara Air Twin Otter flight flying from Pokhara to Kathmandu crashed after take-off, killing all 23 people on board.
In 2012, an Agni Air plane flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed, killing 15 people. Six survived. In 2014, a Nepal Airlines plane flying from Pokhara to Jumla crashed, killing all 18 people on board.
In 1992, a Pakistan International Airlines flight crashed into a mountain while attempting to land in Kathmandu, killing all 167 on board.
The European Union has banned flights from Nepal since 2013 by the 27-nation air force, citing poor safety standards. In 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization cited improvements in Nepal’s aviation sector, but the European Union called for administrative reforms.
