Last Update: January 15, 2023, 5:27 pm IST
A top police official said that the incident took place at 11:00 a.m. Nepal time. (Photo: ANI)
The Pokhara International Airport was inaugurated two weeks ago by Nepal’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and was built with Chinese assistance.
A Nepalese passenger plane with 72 people on board, including five Indians, plunged into a river gorge while landing at the newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara in central Nepal on Sunday, killing at least 68 people.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft of Yeti Airlines took off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu at 10:33 am. While landing at Pokhara airport, the plane crashed on the banks of Seti river between the old airport and the new airport.
A total of 68 passengers were on board, including 10 foreigners and four crew members. republic newspaper Reported. The newspaper reported that out of a total of 15 foreign nationals on board the plane, five were Indians. Other foreign nationals included four Russians, two Koreans and one Australian, one Irish, one Argentine and one French.
Here are five facts about the fatal incident:
Weather not a problem, plane crashed due to technical reasons
It was a clear day in Pokhara today and the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal ruled out adverse weather conditions for the crash.
Gyanendra Bhul, information officer of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, said that there was no weather problem, preliminary information has been received that the plane crashed due to technical reasons.
“Weather was not a problem, preliminary information is that the plane crashed due to technical reasons. Information has been received that flames were seen in the aircraft while it was still airborne,” said Gyanendra Bhul, information officer at the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
Read also: Why does Nepal face so many fatal plane crashes? This is a terrain and technical problem
Plane crashed ’10 to 20 seconds before landing’, no disaster reported
According to Bloomberg, airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula said the flight crashed 10 to 20 seconds before landing and there was no distress call from the cockpit before the disaster.
“The plane would have reached the runway in 10 seconds. However, it met with an accident midway.’
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The Pokhara airport built in collaboration with China was inaugurated 14 days ago.
The Pokhara International Airport was inaugurated two weeks ago by Nepal’s newly-appointed Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ and was built with Chinese assistance. Built against the backdrop of the pristine Annapurna mountain range, the airport was officially inaugurated on January 1, 2023.
The flagship project was part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) cooperation. According to the Kathmandu Post newspaper, the Nepal government signed a $215.96 million soft loan agreement with China in March 2016 for the construction of the airport in this tourist hub.
Yeti Airlines flight 9N-ANC ATR-72 was on its third flight today
Yeti Airlines flight 9N-ANC ATR-72 was on its third flight since Sunday morning. It operated first flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara and back to Kathmandu during the day. Hindustan Times Reported.
Read also: Fatal plane crashes common in mountainous Nepal; a timeline of accidents
The crashed plane was 15 years old
The Yeti Airlines aircraft involved in the crash was a twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft and was 15 years old, equipped with old transponders with unreliable data according to multiple reports. Built by a joint venture between Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo, the ATR 72 is a widely used twin-engine turboprop aircraft. Yeti Airlines has six such aircraft in its fleet.
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