The crash happened around 20 minutes after the take-off.
New Delhi:
At least 67 people died after a plane carrying 72 crashed into a gorge minutes before it was scheduled to land in Nepal’s Pokhara. The accident is the worst air crash in three decades in the small Himalayan nation.
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There were 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals and six children, and four crew members on board. 53 Nepali, 5 Indian, 4 Russian, 2 Koreans, 1 Argentinian, and one each from Ireland, Australia, and France were in the plane, Yeti Airlines said in a statement.
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According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the aircraft took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am. It was close to landing at the Pokhara airport, when it crashed into a river gorge on the bank of the Seti River.
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The crash happened around 20 minutes after the take-off, suggesting the aircraft might have been on the descent. The flight time between the two cities is 25 minutes.
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Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ called an emergency cabinet meeting soon after the crash, and the Nepal government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry to probe the incident.
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Nepal’s airline business has been plagued with concerns around safety, and inadequate training of staff. The European Union has since 2013 put Nepal on the flight safety blacklist, ordering a blanket ban on all flights from the Himalayan country into its airspace, after the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) flagged safety concerns.
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