‘Heard loud sound… saw bodies’: Eyewitnesses recall Nepal plane crash horror
At least 68 out of 72 people onboard a Yeti Airlines flight died on Sunday after the aircraft crashed in Nepal’s Pokhara, the worst aviation accident in the region in 30 years.
A loud sound alerted residents in the area who came rushing to see what had happened and saw a huge smoke in the sky and the wreckage of the plane in a gorge close to the Pokhara airport.
Locals saw the aircraft spinning violently in the air moments before touchdown. Several videos were doing rounds on social media platforms showing the incident. A resident, who was watching it from his terrace described that the plane finally fell nose-first towards its left and crashed into a gorge on the banks of Seti river, as quoted by Associated Press.
“We heard a loud sound and came rushing to the spot (where the plane crash happened). There we could spot a few injured people and bodies in the debris, recalls the horrific plane crash in Pokhara that left 68 people dead,” an eye witness named Deepak Sahi told news agency ANI.
Another eyewitness told the agency how he rushed to the spot to rescue people when saw the huge ball of smoke. “We were in our houses when we heard a loud sound and saw a huge cloud of smoke… We rushed to the spot with our friends and made efforts to save the injured people,” Mahmood Khan said. Residents also said rescue efforts were hampered by thick smoke and a raging fire.
Three people had initially survived the crash and were taken to the hospital but succumbed to their injuries later. There were also infants on board, officials said. Among the deceased also included five Indian nationals, four of whom were visiting Nepal for paragliding activities and had arrived in Kathmandu on Friday.
Search and rescue operations were halted for the day after retrieving 68 bodies from the debris. Nepal Army officials informed that they will resume again tomorrow to look for the four remaining bodies.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Yeti Airlines’ 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft took off from Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33am today and crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport minutes before landing.
Nepal is notorious for its dangerous topography which makes flying extremely challenging in the region. The picturesque Himalayan country witnesses, on average, about one plane crash every year. In May last year, all of 22 people onboard a Tara Air plane were killed when it crashed in Nepal’s Mustang district.