On Sunday, an airplane carrying 72 people crashed in Nepal, according to Yeti Airlines and a local official
“There are four crew members and 68 passengers on board. Rescue efforts are in progress, but Sudarshan Bartaula, the airline’s spokesman, told AFP that it is currently unknown if there are any survivors.
Between the old and new Pokhara airports, he claimed, in the heart of Nepal, a plane had crashed.
According to local official Gurudutta Dhakal, the debris was ablaze and firefighters were attempting to put out the fire.
Responders have already arrived and are battling the fire. In order to save the passengers, all agencies are now concentrating on putting out the fire, according to Dhakal.
Social media users posted videos that appeared to show the crash site covered in debris and engulfed in flames and black smoke. In the moment, AFP was unable to confirm the video.
In recent years, Nepal’s aviation sector has flourished, transporting goods and people between remote areas as well as international trekkers and climbers.
But because of inadequate maintenance and training, it has suffered from poor safety.
All Nepali carriers are no longer permitted to operate in the airspace of the European Union due to safety reasons.
The Himalayan nation also has some of the most difficult and remote runways in the world, with approaches that are difficult for even experienced pilots.
Aircraft operators claim that Nepal lacks the infrastructure necessary to provide reliable weather forecasts, particularly in the remote mountainous regions where fatal crashes have previously occurred.
Additionally, the weather can quickly change in the mountains, making it dangerous to fly.
All 22 occupants of a Tara Air flight operated by the Nepali airline perished in the crash in May 2022, including 16 Nepalis, 4 Indians, and 2 Germans.
Shortly after taking off from Pokhara and heading toward Jomsom, a well-known trekking location, the twin-propeller Twin Otter lost contact with air traffic control.
A day later, its remains were discovered strewn across a mountainside at a height of roughly 4,400 meters.
The majority of the 60 people involved in the search mission had to hike for miles uphill to get there.
Authorities tightened rules in the wake of that crash, mandating, among other things, that planes could only be cleared to fly if the entire route was predicted to experience favorable weather.
51 people were killed in March 2018 when a US-Bangla Airlines plane crashed-landed close to Kathmandu’s notoriously challenging international airport.
The 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines flight that crashed as it approached Kathmandu in 1992 were all killed in the accident, which was Nepal’s deadliest since then.
Just two months prior, 113 people had died in a Thai Airways plane crash close to the same airport.
