A Yeti Airlines plane with 72 people on board crashed on Sunday January 15 in the Kaski district (central Nepal). At least 67 people died in the crash, local police said.
“Thirty-one [bodies] were taken to hospitals ,” a police officer told to media, adding that 36 other bodies were found in the ravine where the plane, a twin-engine ATR 72, crashed. .
The plane had 68 passengers on board – including 15 non-Nepalese citizens (5 Indians, 4 Russians, 2 Koreans, one Argentinian, one Australian, one French and one Irish, according to Yeti Airlines), and four crew members, the company's spokesman told AFP.
Cabin on Fire
Earlier, Gurudutta Dhakal, a local official, said the cabin was on fire and rescuers were "focused first on extinguishing the fire and rescuing passengers" at the crash site.
The Nepalese airline industry has experienced a real boom in recent years, particularly in the field of transporting goods and people in hard-to-reach regions, as well as trekkers and mountaineers of all nationalities. But it suffers from a lack of safety due to insufficient training and maintenance, which is why the European Union has banned all Nepalese carriers from accessing its airspace.
The Himalayan country also has some of the most isolated tracks in the world, surrounded by snow-capped peaks that make approach difficult even for seasoned pilots.
Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks the infrastructure to make accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with rugged mountainous terrain, where fatal accidents have occurred in the past. The weather also changes rapidly in the mountains, making flying conditions difficult.
0 Comments