Crashed Yeti Airlines Aircraft Was Previously Owned by Now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines

According to data from Sirium Fleets, the crashed ATR-72 Nepalese passenger plane was earlier used by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya.

According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, the Yeti Airlines plane took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am on Sunday and landed on the banks of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport in Pokhara minutes before landing. but crashed. ,

At least 68 people have died and four are still missing, officials said, in Nepal’s worst aviation tragedy in three decades.

There were 15 foreigners on board the crashed plane, including five Indian nationals.

According to Cerium Fleets Data, which tracks aircraft fleet, equipment and its cost, the 9N-ANC aircraft was delivered to the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines in 2007.

Six years later, it was bought by Thailand’s Nok Air before it was sold to Nepal’s Yeti Airlines in 2019, it said.

Cerium Fleets Data noted that the aircraft was managed by Investec Bank, and owned by KF Turbo Leasing.

This was the first instance when an ATR-72 aircraft crashed in Nepal’s tumultuous aviation history.

The ATR-72 is a twin-engine turboprop, short-haul regional airliner developed in France and Italy by the aircraft manufacturer ATR, a joint venture between French aerospace company Aerospatiale and Italian aviation group Aeritalia.

The number “72” in its name is derived from the aircraft’s typical standard seating capacity of 72 passengers.

Currently, only Buddha Air and Yeti Airlines use ATR-72 aircraft for short-haul services in Nepal.

The fatal plane crash in Nepal could be due to mishandling, aircraft system malfunction or pilot fatigue, according to a plane crash investigator and pilots.

He said that the exact cause of the accident would be known only after a detailed investigation.

Video clips on social media purportedly show the trajectory of the plane seconds before it crashed, it was a clear sky and the weather was not bad.

An aircraft accident investigator told PTI that before the crash, the plane’s nose was pitched up and the wings tilted to the left, and there could have been a stall.

Meanwhile, officials said the black box of the aircraft was recovered from the crash site on Monday.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)