Nepal’s worst air crash in three decades in Pokhara kills 68

The plane had taken off from  Tribhuvan International Airport in capital Kathmandu city at 10.33 am.

The 9N ANC ATR 72 aircraft had four crew, two pilot, two air hosteses aboard, Yeti Airlines Spokesperson, Sudarshan Bartaula was quoted as saying in RSS as reported by The Himalayan Times.

According to Tek Bahadur KC, Chief District Officer of the Kaski district, the plane crashed into the Seti river gorge, the Nepali newspaper reported.

The deceased included five Indians.

Apart from them, 10 other international tourists died in the flight mishap, which is now being considered as one of the worst witnessed in the country in the last three decades.

The deceased included four Russians, two Koreans, and an Australian, an Irish, an Argentinian and a French.

Rescue operation is still going on.

Local resident Deeveta Kal told the BBC how she rushed to the crash site after seeing the aircraft plunge from the sky shortly after 11:00am local time (05:15 GMT).

"By the time I was there the crash site was already crowded. There was huge smoke coming from the flames of the plane. And then helicopters came over in no time," she said.

"The pilot tried his best to not hit civilisation or any home," Deevta Kal added. "There was a small space right beside the Seti River and the flight hit the ground in that small space."

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Pushpa Kumar Dahal called an emergency meeting of the Council of Ministers following the mishap.

As per local media reports, he is also scheduled to visit Pokhara to inspect the situation.

Prime Minister's press coordinator Surya Kiran Sharma told The Himalayan Times: "The Prime Minister will probably visit the crash site."

Nepal witnessed major air mishaps in past:

In May 2022, a Tara Air plane crashed in the northern Nepalese district of Mustang. The air tragedy had left 22 people dead.

In another major aviation tragedy in 2018, at least 51 people died when a US-Bangla flight, which was travelling from Bangladesh capital city Dhaka, caught fire as it landed in Kathmandu.

Nepal saw its deadliest air crash in 1992 when 167 people travelling in Pakistan International Airlines plane lost their lives when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.

Since 2013, the European Union has put Nepal on its flight safety blacklist putting a blanket ban on all Nepalese flights into its airspace, said the AFP report.