As the day’s search operations came to a conclusion, 68 dead had been found following the crash of a Yeti Airlines passenger plane with 72 persons aboard near Pokhara, Nepal.
After the jet crashed in the Seti River Gorge on Sunday while flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara, authorities said the gruesome process of identifying the bodies was underway.
According to Tek Prasad Rai, a spokesperson for the Nepal Police, “the process of identifying the dead has started.” “The rescue effort is ongoing, and our crew and I have gathered the bodies.”
As of late Sunday, no survivors had been discovered, and authorities announced that the search for the four missing people will pick up again on Monday.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has provided information indicating that 53 of the passengers and the four flight attendants were Nepalis. On board were five Indian passengers, four Russian passengers, two Korean passengers, one Irish passenger, one Australian, one Argentinian, and one French traveler.
The Gandaki Hospital has received the bodies for post-mortem identification. According to Yeti Airlines, after the deceased have been identified, the family will receive the bodies.
“Pokhara now has all of the bodies. According to Pemba Sherpa, marketing manager at Yeti Airlines, “we will transfer the bodies to convenient locations for the families and handover after identification.”
In the event of international casualties, “we have also distributed the information to embassies,” he continued.
What precipitated the collision was not immediately known. In addition to designating Monday as a public holiday to honor the deceased, the government formed a commission to look into the tragedy.
“I am extremely pained by the terrible and tragic accident of Yeti Airlines ANC ATR 72 which was travelling from Kathmandu to Pokhara with passengers,” Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal wrote on Twitter.
He continued, “I respectfully ask to the security officers, the government agencies in Nepal, and the general population to begin an effective rescue.”
According to officials, the presence of a sizable crowd at the crash site caused some complications for the rescue effort. The rescue personnel have requested that everyone leave the area.
Over the years, accidents have plagued Nepal’s airline industry. 22 passengers were killed when a Tara Air plane crashed in May 2022, less than 20 minutes after takeoff from Pokhara.
