By Our Reporter
Yet another plane crash involving an aircraft of Yeti Airlines killed 72 passengers and crew members on Sunday.
The ill-fated Yeti Airlines flight ATR-72 500 plane crashed near the old airport of Pokhara at Nayagaun of Gharipatan of Pokhara Metropolitan City-15 in Kaski on Sunday at 10:50 killing all 72 passengers and crew on board.
It was the biggest crash involving internal flights in Nepal’s aviation history. As of Tuesday, 71 bodies were recovered from the crash site.
The aircraft met with the accident during its third consecutive flight to the same destination.
It was carrying 53 Nepali passengers, five Indian nationals, four Russians, one Irish, one Australian, one Argentine, two Korean citizens, and one French.
The crew members included senior pilot Kamal KC, accompanied by co-pilot Anju Khatiwada, along with two air hostesses Osin Alemagar, and Srijana Hongchun.
When the plane crashed just two kilometres away from the newly inaugurated new airport, many suspected that the plane met the accident when pilot KC was instructing co-pilot Anju Khatiwada and she could not control the heavy aircraft just seconds before it was supposed to land.
Others suspected the failure of the engine in the sky was a fatal accident. However, the reason will be known only after the commission formed to study the crash makes its report public. The black box of the plane has already been brought to Kathmandu.
The fatal crash occurred at a time when Nepal was lobbying to remove its aviation service from the blacklist of the EU Commission. The accident could serve as a blow to Nepal in its bid to be free from the blacklist of the EU Commission.
The recovered bodies were charred making it difficult to identify many of them.
Meanwhile, 48 bodies which could not be recognised have been brought to Kathmandu from Pokhara on Tuesday.
In May last year, a Tara Air flight under the Yeti Airlines management carrying 22 aboard crashed into a Himalayan Mountain at an altitude of about 14,500 feet in Thasang, Mustang.
The fatal crash was the 11th in Nepal in as many years, and it has sent a negative message to the tourists that the sky of Nepal is not safe. Also, the crash, the third largest after 1992 occurred when Nepal’s aviation service is blacklisted.
Meanwhile, a nine-member team from the ATR aerospace company, the manufacturer of the aircraft that crashed in Pokhara on Sunday, have arrived in Nepal.
According to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, the team reached Pokhara to study the accident and cooperate with investigating authorities.
Following the accident, the government formed a five-member probe committee to investigate the crash and make recommendations to prevent similar tragedies in the future.
The committee is led by former Secretary Nagendra Ghimire and has aviation experts Major General (Retd.) Deepak Prakash Bastola and Captain (Retd.) Sunil Thapa, Joint Secretary of the Civil Aviation Division of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Buddhi Sagar Lamichhane and aeronautical engineer Ekraj Jung Thapa as members.
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