A plane with 72 people on board crashed in Nepal on Sunday, a Yeti Airlines spokesman said, saying he did not know “if there are any survivors”. “Rescue services have already arrived on site and are trying to put out the fire” and save passengers.
“There are 68 passengers on board and four crew members…help is on the way, we do not currently know if there are any survivors,” Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP. The plane crashed between the old and new Pokhara airport in central Nepal. The cabin was on fire and rescuers were trying to put out the blaze, local official Gurudutta Dhakal said. “Rescue services have already arrived on site and are trying to put out the fire,” added Gurudutta Dhakal, adding that they were “focused first on extinguishing the fire and rescuing the passengers”.
Security issues?
Nepal’s airline industry has boomed in recent years, ferrying goods and people to hard-to-reach areas, as well as trekkers and foreign mountain climbers. But it suffered from a lack of safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.
The European Union has banned all Nepalese carriers from accessing its airspace for security reasons. The Himalayan country also has some of the most isolated and tricky tracks in the world, flanked by snow-capped peaks that challenge even seasoned pilots to approach. Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks the infrastructure to make accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with rugged mountainous terrain, where fatal accidents have occurred in the past.
The weather also changes rapidly in the mountains, creating even more challenging flying conditions. In May 2022, all 22 people on board a plane operated by the Nepalese company Tara Air – 16 Nepalese, four Indians and two Germans – died when the plane crashed.