Hundreds of rescue workers scoured the hillside where the flight carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu went down.
Nearly 350 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal – home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.The plane on Sunday made contact with Pokhara airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. “Then it crashed.” At least 68 people were confirmed dead, it said.
“I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly it nosedived and it went into the gorge,” Chhetri said. Those on board the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft included three infants and three children, the Civil Aviation Authority’s statement said. Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 said on Twitter the Yeti Airlines aircraft was 15 years old and equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data. It added that the last signal from the transponder was received at 0512 GMT at an altitude of 2,875 feet above mean sea level.On its website, Yeti describes itself as a leading domestic carrier. Its fleet consists of six ATR 72-500s, including the one that crashed.