At least 67 people were killed in Nepal in the plane crash on Sunday January 15, according to a police report. The aircraft was carrying 72 people.
” Thirty one [corps] were transported to hospitals”, police officer AK Chhetri told AFP, adding that 36 other remains were found in the ravine where the plane crashed. Coming from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, the plane crashed near the local airport in Pokhara, central Nepal, where it was due to land.
The plane had 68 passengers and four crew members on board, company spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP. The city of Pokhara is a gateway for religious pilgrims and trekkers from all over the world: among the passengers are 15 foreign nationals, including a Frenchman, five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans, an Australian, an Argentinian and a Irish.
The trickiest tracks in the world
At the scene of the accident, rescuers were spraying the pieces of the twin-engine ATR 72 on fire with hoses. Around lay debris from the aircraft, including seats. Rescue is “focused first on extinguishing the fire and rescuing the passengers”said a local official Gurudutta Dhakal.
Nepal’s airline industry has boomed in recent years, ferrying goods and people to hard-to-reach areas, as well as trekkers and foreign mountain climbers. But it suffered from a lack of safety due to insufficient pilot training and maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepalese carriers from accessing its airspace for security reasons.
The Himalayan country also has some of the most isolated and tricky tracks in the world, flanked by snow-capped peaks that challenge even seasoned pilots to approach.
In addition, the weather also changes rapidly in the mountains, creating even more difficult flying conditions. And aircraft operators say Nepal lacks the infrastructure to make accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with rugged mountainous terrain where fatal crashes have occurred in the past.
