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WORLD NEWS Monday 16 January 2023
68 dead, 4 missing after plane crashes in Nepal

resort town

By UPENDRA MAN SINGH,
SHEIKH SAALIQ and ANISH
BHATTARAI
Associated Press
POKHARA, Nepal (AP) — A
plane making a 27-min-
ute flight to a Nepal tourist
town crashed into a gorge
Sunday while attempting
to land at a newly opened
airport, killing at least 68 of
the 72 people aboard. At
least one witness reported
hearing cries for help from
within the fiery wreck, the
country's deadliest airplane
accident in three decades.
Hours after dark, scores of
onlookers crowded around
the crash site near the air-
port in the resort town of
Pokhara as rescue workers Nepalese rescue workers and civilians gather around the wreckage of a passenger plane that
crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, Sunday, Jan. 15, 2023.
combed the wreckage on Associated Press
the edge of the cliff and
in the ravine below. Offi- crew members, Nepal's try said in a statement that in several deadly acci-
cials suspended the search Civil Aviation Authority said it's still trying to confirm the dents over the years. In Tai-
for the four missing people in a statement. The foreign- fate of two South Korean wan two earlier accidents
overnight and planned to ers included five Indians, passengers and has sent involving ATR 72-500 and
resume looking Monday. four Russians, two South Ko- staff to the scene. The Rus- ATR 72-600 aircrafts hap-
Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, reans, and one each from sian Ambassador to Nepal, pened just months apart. In
who rushed to the crash site Ireland, Australia, Argen- Alexei Novikov, confirmed July 2014, a TransAsia ATR
near the Seti River to help tina and France. the death of four Russian 72-500 flight crashed while
search for bodies, said the Images and videos shared citizens who were on board trying to land on the scenic
rescue efforts were ham- on Twitter showed plumes the plane. Penghu archipelago be-
pered by thick smoke and of smoke billowing from the Omar Guiterrez, governor tween Taiwan and China,
a raging fire. crash site, about 1.6 kilome- of Argentina's Neuquen killing 48 people onboard.
"The flames were so hot ters (nearly a mile) away province, reported on his An ATR 72-600 operated
that we couldn't go near from Pokhara International official Twitter account that by the same Taiwanese
the wreckage. I heard a Airport. The aircraft's fuse- an Argentine passanger on airline crashed shortly after
man crying for help, but lage was split into multiple the flight was Jannet Pala- takeoff in Taipei in February
because of the flames and parts that were scattered vecino from his province. 2015 after one of its engines
smoke we couldn't help down the gorge. The Facebook page of Pa- failed and the second was
him," Tiwari said. Firefighters carried bodies, lavecino says she was man- shut down, apparently by
It was not immediately some burned beyond rec- ager of the Hotel Suizo in mistake.
clear what caused the ac- ognition, to hospitals where Neuquen city. The 2015 crash, captured
cident, Nepal's Civil Avia- grief-stricken relatives had On the page, she described in dramatic footage that
tion Authority said. assembled. At Kathmandu herself as a lover of travel, showed the plane striking a
A witness said he saw the airport, family members ap- and of adventure tourism. taxi as it hurtled out of con-
aircraft spinning violently peared distraught as they "I am passionate about the trol, killed 43, and prompt-
in the air after it began de- were escorted in and at mountains! Riding my bike ed authorities to ground all
scending to land, watch- times exchanged heated in cycling. I love my garden Taiwanese-registered ATR
ing from the terrace of his words with officials as they and the countryside. I like 72s for some time. TransA-
house. Finally, Gaurav Gu- waited for information. to paint!" she wrote. sia ceased all flights in 2016
rung said, the plane fell Tek Bahadur K. C., a se- Her account has many and later went out of busi-
nose-first towards its left and nior administrative officer photos of her in the moun- ness.
crashed into the gorge. in the Kaski district, said he tains. Pokhara is the gate- ATR identified the plane in-
The aviation authority said expected rescue workers way to the Annapurna Cir- volved in Sunday's crash as
the aircraft last made con- to find more bodies at the cuit, a popular hiking trail an ATR 72-500 in a tweet.
tact with the airport from bottom of the gorge. in the Himalayas. The city's According to plane track-
near Seti Gorge at 10:50 Prime Minister Pushpa Ka- new international airport ing data from flightradar24.
a.m. before crashing. mal Dahal, who rushed to began operations only two com, the aircraft was 15
The twin-engine ATR 72 air- Tribhuvan International Air- weeks ago. years old and "equipped
craft, operated by Nepal's port in Kathmandu after The type of plane involved, with an old transponder
Yeti Airlines, was flying from the crash, set up a panel to the ATR 72, has been used with unreliable data." It
the capital, Kathmandu, investigate the accident. by airlines around the world was previously flown by In-
to Pokhara, located 200 "The incident was tragic. for short regional flights. In- dia's Kingfisher Airlines and
kilometers (125 miles) west. The full force of the Nepali troduced in the late 1980s Thailand's Nok Air before
It was carrying 68 passen- army, police has been de- by a French and Italian Yeti took it over in 2019, ac-
gers including 15 foreign ployed for rescue," he said. partnership, the aircraft cording to records on Air-
nationals, as well as four South Korea's Foreign Minis- model has been involved fleets.net.q