Deadly Plane Crash in Nepal Kills 71 Onboard

On Sunday, January 17, 2023, a domestic flight with 72 people, including five Indians, crashed into a gorge while attempting to land at a newly opened international airport in Pokhara, Nepal. Passengers included 25 women, three children and as many infants. The twin-engine ATR 72-500 aircraft of Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, with registration number 9N-ANC, took off from the Tribhuvan International Airport in the capital Kathmandu for Pokhara at around 10:30 a.m., with 68 passengers and four crew members on board. Moments before its scheduled landing, the aircraft crashed between the old airport and the new airport on the bank of the Seti River around 11 a.m. — about 1.6 kilometres from the Pokhara airport. The plane smashed into pieces and burst into flames after it plummeted into a gorge. Soldiers from the Nepal Army, the Armed Police Force personnel, the Nepal Police and locals rushed in to search for survivors and rescue efforts were hampered by thick smoke and a raging fire. The cause of the deadly crash has not been ascertained so far. A team of experts from the French company that manufactures the ATR aircraft arrived in Nepal on Tuesday to assist in probe. Nepal has a troubling history of aviation accidents with more than 900 people, including 350 since 2000, killed in air crashes in Nepal since the first crash in Nepal’s Simara in 1955.