Rescuers and onlookers acquire at the web site of a aircraft crash in Pokhara on January 15, 2023. An plane with 72 individuals on board crashed in Nepal on January 15, Yeti Airways and a area official explained.
Krishna Mani Baral | Afp | Getty Pictures
At the very least 16 individuals were killed on Sunday when an aircraft crashed in western Nepal’s Pokhara, an military spokesman said, in the smaller Himalayan country’s worst crash in far more than 30 many years.
“We hope to recuperate a lot more bodies,” Krishna Bhandari informed Reuters. “The plane has broken into pieces.”
There ended up 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 plane operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, together with two infants, four crew members and 10 international nationals, reported airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.
“We do not know their nationalities,” he said. “We are seeking to ascertain it.”
Hundreds of rescue staff were being scouring the hillside crash web-site.
It was the deadliest crash in Nepal because 1992, the Aviation Protection Community database confirmed, when a Pakistan Global Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hillside on strategy to Kathmandu.
The aircraft was 15 several years old, in accordance to flight tracking web site FlightRadar24.
The ATR72 is a broadly utilized twin engine turboprop airplane manufactured by a joint enterprise of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo. Yeti Airways has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, in accordance to its website.
Nearby television confirmed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue personnel and crowds of people today collected about the wreckage of the plane.
Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, residence to 8 of the world’s 14 greatest mountains, such as Everest, as the temperature can improve suddenly and make for dangerous situations.
Nepal Key Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has called an unexpected emergency cupboard meeting following the aircraft crash, a federal government statement claimed.