Dozens Killed in Nepal Plane Crash

Dozens were killed in Nepal when a plane with seventy-two people on board crashed near an airport, officials say.

The Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu to the tourist town of Pokhara crashed on landing, catching fire.

Videos posted on social media show an aircraft flying low over a populated area before spinning sharply.

Video of what seems to be moments before the crash of Yeti Airlines🇳🇵 ATR72 carrying 72 passengers near Pokhara Airport#aerowanderer #aviation #avgeek #nepal #yetiairlines pic.twitter.com/hk12Edlvpf

— Aerowanderer (@aerowanderer) January 15, 2023

There were sixty-eight passengers on board, including at least fifteen foreign nationals and four crew members.

Video taken where the plane came down shows thick billowing black smoke and burning debris.

#Nepal
72 passengers were on board. Plane crash at Pokhra International Airport. pic.twitter.com/igBoObcCDm

— Aishwarya Paliwal (@AishPaliwal) January 15, 2023

“We expect to recover more bodies,” an army spokesman told Reuters, saying the plane “has broken into pieces.”

Of the passengers, fifty-three are said to be Nepalese. There were five Indians, four Russians, and two Koreans on the plane. There was also one passenger each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina, and France among other places.

Nepal’s poor record on air safety

Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.

The Himalayan country of Nepal, home to eight of the world’s fourteen highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents.

A Tara Air plane crashed in May 2022 in the northern Nepalese district of Mustang, killing twenty-two people.

In early 2018, fifty-one people were killed when a US-Bangla flight traveling from Dhaka in Bangladesh caught fire as it landed in Kathmandu.