68 dead as a plane crashed while landing in Nepal
Rescue workers and civilians gather around the wreckage.
Father
Nepalese authorities announced that a regional passenger plane with 72 people on board crashed into a strait while landing at a newly opened airport in the central resort of Pokhara, yesterday, killing 68 people.
Rescuers trawled the crash site near the Seti River, about 1.6 kilometers (nearly a mile) from Pokhara International Airport, using ropes to pull bodies from the wreckage, parts of which were hanging over the edge of the strait.
Firefighters transferred some of the bodies, which were burnt beyond recognition, to hospitals, where grieving relatives gathered.
Police official AK Chhetri told AFP that the plane fell into a ravine 300 meters deep, which led to difficulties in rescue operations.
At the scene of the accident, rescue workers were working to extinguish the fire raging in the structure of the plane, and in the place also, fragments and pieces of the plane were visible, including seats.
The Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that the twin-engine ATR-72, operated by Nepal Airlines, was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreigners, and four crew members.
Among the foreigners were five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
In May 2022, 22 people died when a plane they were on board crashed, shortly after it took off from Pokhara bound for Jomsom, a popular tourist destination. After this accident, the authorities tightened regulations so that planes are not allowed to fly unless the weather forecast is favorable throughout the flight. .
In 2018, a plane crashed near Kathmandu International Airport, which is known to be difficult to reach, killing 51 people. The deadliest accident was in Nepal in 1992, when 167 people were killed on a Pakistan International Airlines plane that crashed near Kathmandu, and two months ago. A Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
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