At least 69 people including five Indians lost their lives after a Nepalese passenger plane with 72 people onboard crashed into a river gorge on Sunday while landing at the Pokhara airport. Of the five Indians, four were planning to participate in paragliding activities in the tourist hub of Pokhara before the tragedy struck them.
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The four Indians had arrived in Kathmandu from India on Friday. “All the four were planning to enjoy paragliding in the lake city and tourist hub Pokhara. We came together from India in the same vehicle. They stayed in Gaushala near Pashupatinath Temple and then in Hotel Discovery of Thamel, before departing to Pokhara. They were planning to return to India from Pokhara via Gorakhpur," said Ajay Kumar Shah, a resident of Sarlahi district in southern Nepal.
Four of the five Indians killed in the plane crash hailed from Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh. Ghazipur District Magistrate Aryaka Akhauri told PTI over phone that the administration has reach out to the affected families. “Our sub-divisional magistrate and other officials are meeting them. We are also in touch with the embassy…. We will do the needful after the recovery of bodies," she said.
The four victims from Ghazipur district were identified as Sonu Jaiswal, Anil Rajbhar, Abhishek Kushwaha and Vishal Sharma.
Meanwhile, a video has surfaced on social media purportedly shot by Sonu Jaiswal who went live on Facebook seconds before the plane crashed.
Sharma belonged to Alawalpur Chatti village in the Badesar area of the district, Jaiswal had houses in Chak Jainab and Alawalpur Chatti but was currently living in Sarnath, a police spokesperson said.
Rajbhar was a resident of Chak Jainab in the Badesar area and Kushwaha of Dharwa in the Nonhara area of Ghazipur, he said.
Asked about the fifth Indian killed in the plane crash, who was identified as Sanjay Jaiswal, the police spokesperson said he might have his roots in Ghazipur but it could not be confirmed yet.
According to available information he was living in Kathmandu, the police spokesperson added.
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Yeti Airlines’ 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN). While landing at the Pokhara airport, the aircraft crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport.
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There were a total of 68 passengers including 10 foreigners and four crew members, Republica newspaper reported. Five Indians were among the total 15 foreign nationals onboard the plane, the paper reported. Other foreign nationals included – four Russians, two Koreans, and an Australian, an Irish, an Argentinian and a French.
The Yeti Airlines’ plane involved in the crash was a twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft and was 15 years old equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data, as per multiple reports. Manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo, the ATR 72 is a widely used twin-engine turboprop plane. There are six such planes in Yeti Airlines’ fleet.
The Yeti Airlines flight 9N-ANC ATR-72 was on its third sortie since Sunday morning. It first flew from Kathmandu to Pokhara and back to Kathmandu earlier in the day, Hindustan Times reported.
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