68 killed after plane crashes near Nepal airport

KATHMANDU, Nepal — At least 68 people were killed on Sunday after a passenger plane crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in Nepal, authorities said.

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A Yeti Airlines flight carrying 72 people -- four crew members and 68 passengers -- crashed near Pokhara International Airport in the resort town of Pokhara, The Washington Post reported. According to Nepal’s civil aviation authority, at least one of the persons killed was an infant, according to CNN.

According to a statement from the airline, 53 Nepalese residents and 15 foreign nationals were passengers on the flight, the Post report. Five of the foreigners were from India and four were from Russia. There were also two passengers from South Korea, one from Argentina, one from Australia, one from France and one from Ireland.

“We expect to recover more bodies,” army spokesperson Krishna Bhandari said, according to Sky News. “The plane has broken into pieces.”

The twin-engine ATR propeller plane was traveling from Nepal’s capital city of Kathmandu, according to The New York Times. A spokesperson for Yeti Airlines confirmed the news of the crash and the number of people on board, the newspaper reported.

Videos on social media showed the plane engulfed by flames and black plumes of smoke at the crash site, the Times reported.

It was unclear what caused the plane to crash, The Associated Press reported.

According to the Post, the bodies were recovered by rescue teams, according to Prem Nath Thakur, a spokesperson of Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport, which is helping response teams.

“We are searching for the remaining four,” Thakur said Sunday. “The identity of the deceased is yet to be known.”

A witness, Deeveta Kal, told the BBC that she rushed to the crash site after seeing the aircraft fall from the sky shortly after 11 a.m. local time.

“By the time I was there the crash site was already crowded,” Kal told the news outlet. “There was huge smoke coming from the flames of the plane. And then helicopters came over in no time.

“The pilot tried his best to not hit civilization or any home. There was a small space right beside the Seti River and the flight hit the ground in that small space.”

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, who went to the airport after the crash, set up a panel to investigate the accident, the AP reported.

“The incident was tragic,” Dahal said. “The full force of the Nepali army (and) police (have) been deployed for rescue.”

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