At least 68 people died this Sunday in Nepal when a plane carrying 72 passengers, including an Argentine, crashed in the worst air disaster in the country in three decades, police authorities reported.
The passenger of Argentine nationality was identified as Jannet Sandra Palavecinoaccording to the list released by Yeti Airlines and the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority.
The aeronautical agency reported that 68 bodies have been found so far and, according to Indian media, the airline’s spokesman, Pemba Sherpa, indicated that the incident left no survivors.
The airline spokesman, Pemba Sherpa, indicated that the accident left no survivors.
However, there is still no official confirmation from the Nepalese emergency agencies.
Army spokesman Krishna Prasad Bhandari told the AFP agency that “the device crashed into a ravine, so it is difficult to remove the bodies. The search and rescue operation continues. So far no survivors have been found.”
The flight, coming from Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, crashed shortly before 11 local time (2:15 Argentine time) near Pokhara, in the center of the country, where it was supposed to land.
This city is an important crossing point for foreign pilgrims and mountaineers.
On the flight were 68 passengers, one of them Argentine, and four crew members, according to Yeti Airlines.
There were 68 passengers on the flight, one of them Argentine, and four crew members, according to Yeti Airlines.
Another 14 foreigners were also on board: five citizens of India, four Russians, two Koreans, one Australian, one Irishman and one Frenchman, said the airline’s spokesman, Sudarshan Bardaula.
A plane crashed in Nepal and among the dead is an Argentine https://t.co/Ryyw30ezOD pic.twitter.com/arBfw1otoi
– Telam Agency (@AgenciaTelam) January 15, 2023
The burned-out fuselage of the device was in a deep ravine between the old Pokhara airport, created in 1958, and the new international terminal in this city, inaugurated on January 1.
After the accident, rescuers tried to put out the fire among the remains of the device, an ATR 72 powered by two turboprop engines.
According to the AFP agency, Nepal’s aircraft industry has grown a lot in recent yearsboth in the transport of goods and tourists.
However, due to lack of staff training and maintenance issues, companies often suffer from security problems. The European Union therefore prohibited all Nepalese carriers from entering its airspace.
The Himalayan country also boasts some of the most remote and tricky tracks in the world, flanked by snow-capped peaks that make approaching them challenging even for experienced pilots.
The companies indicate that Nepal does not have the infrastructure to establish accurate weather forecastsparticularly in the most remote regions and with difficult mountainous relief, where fatal accidents have been recorded in recent years.
This Sunday is the deadliest accident in Nepal since 1992when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed near Kathmandu.
In May 2022, the 22 people who were traveling on board a plane of the Nepalese company Tara Air -16 Nepalese, four Indians and two Germans- died when the device crashed.
Air control lost contact with the twin-prop aircraft shortly after it took off from Pokhara en route to Jomsom, a popular trekking spot.
His remains were found a day later on the side of a mountain at an altitude of about 4,400 meters.
In March 2018, 51 people were killed in the crash of a US-Bangla Airlines plane that crashed near Kathmandu International Airport, in a notoriously difficult situation.
