68 PASSENGERS DIE IN PLANE CRASH
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A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal
The plane was carrying 68 passengers and four
crew members.
One Irish passenger was reported to be on board the Nepal flight in which at least 68 people have died
The condition of the Irish passenger is not known at this time.
Those on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft included two infants and four crew members, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.
Passengers included five Indians, four Russians and one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentine national.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that it is aware of an incident.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of reports of the involvement of an Irish citizen in an airplane crash in Nepal, and stands ready to provide consular assistance if requested,” a DFA spokesperson said.
The ATR72 is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus (AIR.PA) and Italy’s Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.
Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 reported on Twitter that the Yeti Airlines aircraft was 15 years old.
Yeti describes itself on its website as a leading domestic carrier of Nepal.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an emergency cabinet meeting after the plane crash.
Hundreds of rescue workers were scouring the hillside where the Yeti Airlines flight, carrying 72 people, including reportedly one Irish person, from the capital Kathmandu, went down.
The weather was clear, said Jagannath Niroula, spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Local TV showed rescue workers scrambling around broken sections of the aircraft. Some of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with licks of flames visible.
“The plane is burning,” said police official Ajay K.C., adding that rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site in a gorge between two hills near the tourist town’s airport.
The craft made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. (0505 GMT), the aviation authority said in a statement. “Then it crashed.”
“Half of the plane is on the hillside,” said Arun Tamu, a local resident, who told Reuters he reached the site minutes after the plane went down. “The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river.”
Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.
“I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly its nose dived and it went into the gorge,” Chhetri told Reuters, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital.
The crash is Nepal’s deadliest since March 2018, when a US-Bangla Dash 8 turboprop flight from Dhaka crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people on board, according to Aviation Safety Network.
At least 309 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal – home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest – where the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions. The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013, citing safety concerns.
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