Nepal –
Local police officials put the death toll in the plane crash in Pokhara, Nepal to be 67 people. A total of 31 victims were taken to hospital.
“Thirty-one (bodies) have been taken to hospital,” police official AK Chhetri said AFPSunday (15/1/2023).
Chhetri added that another 36 bodies were still in the 300-metre-high ravine. It is known that half of the plane fell into a ravine.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for Nepal’s military said parts of the plane that fell into a ravine made rescue difficult. He said the search was continuing.
“The plane fell into a canyon making it difficult to retrieve the bodies. Search and rescue is ongoing. No survivors have been found yet,” army spokesman Krishna Prasad Bhandari told AFP.
A local official said that several survivors had been taken to hospital. However, this was not confirmed by the airline Yeti Airlines or others.
Yeti spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP that the plane was carrying 72 people consisting of 68 passengers and 4 crew. As many as 15 of them are foreigners.
The flight from Kathmandu bound for Pokhara crashed into a ravine and fell apart between Pokhara’s new international and domestic airports just before 11:00 a.m. (0515 GMT) on Sunday.
After the crash, rescue workers sprayed the burning parts of the twin-turboprop ATR 72 aircraft. Meanwhile smoke billowed from the ravine as hundreds of people watched.
Watch Video: Plane Crash in Nepal, 40 People Killed
(lir/dhn)
