Rescue workers have given up hope of finding any survivors from Nepal's deadliest plane crash in decades, according to officials.
The Yeti Airlines flight was carrying 72 passengers and crew from the Nepalese capital Kathmandu to the “tourist city” of Pokhara on Sunday in “clear weather” when it crashed into a river gorge and caught fire just seconds before the scheduled landing, The India Express reported. Local official Tek Bahadur said today that 68 bodies had been found and that there was “nil” chance of any survivors.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Investigators had yet to determine the cause of the crash, but an airport spokesperson told the BBC that the pilot did not report “anything untoward” as the plane approached the airport and that there had been “no issue” with the weather or visibility.
A mobile phone was also recovered from the crash site that “apparently contains video recorded by a passenger on their mobile phone moments before impact”, said The Times. The video was passed to Abhishek Pratap Shah, a former Nepali MP, who told Indian news channel NDTV that the footage was shared with him by a “friend” who “received it from police personnel”.
The Times reported that the “distressing” video “shows the last moments before the plane crashed as one member of the group filmed live on Facebook”.
The plane was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia and France.
The crew included co-pilot Anju Khatiwada, who had lost her husband, also a Yeti Airlines pilot, in a plane crash in 2006. A spokesperson for the domestic carrier told Reuters that Khatiwada “got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death”.
According to Sky News, since 2000 nearly 350 people have died in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, “where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions”.
-
Film reviews: ‘Send Help’ and ‘Private Life’Feature An office doormat is stranded alone with her awful boss and a frazzled therapist turns amateur murder investigator
-
Movies to watch in Februarythe week recommends Time travelers, multiverse hoppers and an Iraqi parable highlight this month’s offerings during the depths of winter
-
ICE’s facial scanning is the tip of the surveillance icebergIN THE SPOTLIGHT Federal troops are increasingly turning to high-tech tracking tools that push the boundaries of personal privacy
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
