LAST UPDATE | 16 Jan 2023
RESCUERS HAVE SUSPENDED for the night the search for three bodies that remain missing in the wreckage of a plane that crashed yesterday.
The search was paused as evening fell in the country, with officials saying they have no hope of finding survivors.
A day of mourning was called in Nepal today after the tragic deaths of dozens of people in the crash, which say the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 plummet into a steep gorge where it smashed and caught fire with 72 people on board.
Officials said 69 bodies had been recovered so far, with autopsies on 24 ongoing. The plane was carrying 68 passengers and four crew.
According to officials at Kathmandu Airport, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have both been found in good condition.
Good breaking news: KATHMANDU AIRPORT OFFICIAL: BOTH COCKPIT VOICE RECORDER AND FLIGHT DATA RECORDER OF CRASHED NEPAL AIRCRAFT FOUND
— Jamie Freed (@Jamie_Freed) January 16, 2023
Overnight, soldiers used ropes and stretchers to retrieve bodies from the 300-metre deep ravine, with recovery efforts resuming today.
Rescue workers were rushed there after the crash and tried to put out the raging fires that were sending thick black smoke into the sky.
A list of passengers released by Nepal’s aviation authority detailed that most of the passengers on the flight that crashed yesterday were from Nepal, while 15 were from other countries.
The aviation authority listed that a man named Ruan Calum Crighton was travelling with an Irish passport, with other foreign passengers coming from India, Russia, Korea, Australia, Argentina and France.
However, the Department of Foreign Affairs – which previously said it was aware of reports of an Irish citizen – has released an updated statement this afternoon saying that the victim was a UK national. He was travelling with a UK passport.
“The Department of Foreign Affairs can confirm that an individual indicated in reports as being Irish is a UK national,” the department said.
“The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is providing consular support. Our deepest sympathies go to all those who have been affected by this tragic plane crash.”
The ATR 72 was on a flight from the capital Kathmandu and plunged into the gorge between Pokhara’s brand-new international airport and the old domestic one shortly before 11 am local time (5am Irish time) yesterday.
Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said the aircraft last made contact with the airport from near Seti Gorge at 10.50am before crashing.
One witness, Arum Tamu, said: “I was walking when I heard a loud blast, like a bomb went off.”
Tamu was around 500 metres away and livestreamed video of the blazing wreckage on social media.
“A few of us rushed to see if we can rescue anybody. I saw at least two women were breathing. The fire was getting very intense and it made it difficult for us to approach closer,” the former soldier told AFP.
Raj Dhungana, the uncle of one of the passengers, 23-year-old Sangita Shahi, told AFP outside a hospital in Pokhara that his whole family “is in pain”.
He described a “very talented” young woman who was a student in Kathmandu and ran a makeup studio while working on an online business platform on the side.
“God has taken away such a nice person,” he said.
The plane’s France-based manufacturer ATR released a statement saying: “Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this.”
“ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.”
Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas, as well as ferrying foreign mountain climbers. However, it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.
The country has some of the world’s most remote and trickiest runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge for even accomplished pilots. The weather is also notoriously capricious and hard to forecast, particularly in the mountains, where thick fog can suddenly obscure whole mountains from view.
Nepal’s deadliest aviation accident was in 1992, when all 167 people on a Pakistan International Airlines jet died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu.
Additional reporting by Tadgh McNally, Lauren Boland and Press Association
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