Last Update: January 18, 2023, 22:17 IST
The government has set up a five-member inquiry committee to probe the crash – Nepal’s deadliest aviation accident in more than 30 years (AP Photo/Krishna Mani Baral)
According to Nepal’s civil aviation body, 914 people have died in air accidents in the country since the first disaster was recorded in August 1955.
A team of French experts, which is in Nepal to help the government investigate the crash of the Yeti Airlines plane with 72 people on board, began its probe on Wednesday and visited the crash site in the resort town of Pokhara, officials said. Visited.
According to a Yeti Airlines official, a nine-member team is questioning the airline’s staff and concerned officials in Pokhara to understand the details of the ATR-72 plane crash that killed 71 people, including five Indians.
The plane that took off from Kathmandu at 10:30 am on Sunday plunged into a gorge in the Seti River, killing all four crew members and 68 passengers on board. One person on the plane is still missing.
The government has set up a five-member inquiry committee to investigate the accident – Nepal’s deadliest aviation accident in more than 30 years.
The probe panel, headed by former aviation secretary Nagendra Ghimire, has been asked to probe the accident and submit its report within 45 days.
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.
Meanwhile, the Nepali Army team continues its search operation in Seti Valley to search for the remains of the aircraft.
The army said the search operation would continue on Thursday as well.
According to the doctors of the hospital, out of 49 bodies brought to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajganj, Kathmandu, postmortem has been done on 23 bodies.
Yeti Airlines spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said the bodies would be handed over to the families of those killed in the crash on Thursday.
The postmortem of the remaining bodies will begin on Thursday.
Twenty-two bodies of Nepalese nationals have already been handed over to their relatives by the Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences, where doctors completed the postmortem on Tuesday.
Many of the bodies have been burnt or dismembered, making identification difficult.
Bartaula said that after the post-mortem DNA test of the bodies was done and after that they were handed over to their relatives.
Thus the formalities of DNA identification have resulted in delay in handing over the bodies to the family members, who have been complaining about the lengthy process.
According to Nepal’s civil aviation body, 914 people have died in air accidents in the country since the first disaster was recorded in August 1955.
The Yeti Airlines tragedy in Pokhara on Sunday is the 104th accident in Nepali skies and the third biggest in terms of casualties.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)