Plane crash in Nepal: at least 67 dead
A plane carrying 68 passengers and 4 crew members has crashed in the Pokhara region of central Nepal. The Yeti Airlines plane crashed between the old airport and Pokhara International Airport, the Yeti Airlines spokesman said, the Kathmandu Post reported. The toll of the plane crash in central Nepal worsens. If at first, in fact, it seemed there could be several survivors, now according to police data, the victims of the crash of the Yeti Airlines flight are 67. A total of 72 people were traveling on board the plane.
Nepal: the most dangerous country in the world for airplanes
Nepal is one of the most challenging countries in the world for aviation, both due to its weather conditions and the nature of the terrain. According to the Indian media, the country has recorded 67 plane crashes in the last 60 years. The most recent, before today’s crash of the Yeti Airlines aircraft, was the one that affected the Tara Air flight in May 2022 from Pokhara to Jomsom, which crashed killing 22 passengers.
Nepal’s airline industry has experienced a boom in recent years, carrying cargo and people to hard-to-reach areas, as well as foreign trekkers and mountaineers. However, it suffers from a lack of safety due to insufficient personnel training and aircraft maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepalese carriers from entering its airspace for security reasons.
The Himalayan country also has some of the most isolated and difficult trails in the world, flanked by snow-capped peaks that challenge even seasoned pilots to get close. Airline operators say Nepal lacks the infrastructure to make accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with rugged mountainous terrain, where fatal accidents have occurred in the past. Weather conditions change rapidly in the mountains, making for even more challenging flying conditions.
After the crash last year, the Nepalese authorities had tightened the regulations for flight authorizations. In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crashed near the difficult access to Kathmandu International Airport, killing 51 people. The crash remains the deadliest in the country since 1992, when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane died in a crash on approach to Kathmandu. Two months earlier, a Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
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