NEW DELHI (SONNA) —At least 68 people were killed on Sunday when a domestic flight of Yeti Airlines crashed in Pokhara in Nepal, the worst air crash in three decades in the small Himalayan nation.
Rescuers were scouring the crash site near the Seti River, which is nearly a mile (1.6 kilometers) away from Pokhara International Airport, and were expecting to find more bodies, said Tek Bahadur K. C., a senior administrative officer in the Kaski district.
It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to crash.
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals, and four crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who rushed to the airport after the crash, said the plane was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara. He urged security personnel and the general public to help with the rescue efforts.
Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers, Nepali soldiers, and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft.
Source: News Agencies
