At least 68 people were killed when Nepal's Yeti Airlines' passenger plane with 72 people onboard, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened airport in central Nepal's resort city of Pokhara on Sunday, officials said.
The airline, which connects different destinations in Nepal, operates only ATR 72-500s. Each 70-seater aircraft is a twin-engine turboprop powered by two Pratt & Whitney PW127 engines and are equipped with Hamilton Sundstrand composite blade propellers, according to its website.
Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the aircraft involved in the crash on Sunday is a 15-year old ATR 72-500 with registration number 9N-ANC and serial number 754. This aircraft was equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data. "We are downloading high resolution data and verifying the data quality," it said.
Four of the five Indians killed in a plane crash in Nepal on Sunday hailed from Ghazipur district in Uttar Pradesh, officials said.
The crash saw condolences pouring in from different quarters. Nepal's Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' has expressed grief over the air crash and has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he was pained by the tragic air crash.
"Pained by the tragic air crash in Nepal in which precious lives have been lost, including Indian nationals. In this hour of grief, my thoughts and prayers are with the bereaved families," Modi said in a tweet and tagged Nepalese Prime Minister 'Prachanda'.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, too, condoled the deaths.
Uttar Pradesh officials have been directed to coordinate with the Ministry of External affairs to bring the mortal remains of the deceased to the State.
The four victims from Ghazipur district were identified as Sonu Jaiswal, Anil Rajbhar, Abhishek Kushwaha and Vishal Sharma. 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, a 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.
Incidentally, Sonu Jaiswal was live on Facebook when the plane in which he was traveling crashed. The video of the FB Live of around 1:36 minutes also shows how the aircraft caught fire after it crashed.
Mishandling, malfunctioning of aircraft system or pilot fatigue could be among the factors that caused the deadly plane crash in Nepal that killed at least 68 people on Sunday, according to pilots and an aircraft accident investigation expert.
They also said the exact reasons that led to the accident will be known only after a detailed investigation.
Nepal, which has witnessed quite a few aircraft accidents in recent years, on Sunday witnessed the crash of an ATR-72 aircraft, operated by Yeti Airlines, that was flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara.
Going by the video clips on social media purportedly showing the plane's trajectory seconds before it crashed, it was a clear sky and the weather was not bad.
An aircraft accident investigator told PTI that going by one of the video clips, the nose of the aircraft slightly went up and the wings drooped to the left side before the crash happened, and there could have been a stall.
While the exact factors for the crash will be known only after completion of the detailed probe, initially, it looks like the possibility of mishandling by the pilot or malfunctioning of the plane's angle of attack system, he said on the condition of anonymity.
The person, who was involved in multiple aircraft accident probes, was also closely associated with the investigation into the Calicut plane crash in 2020.
A senior pilot at a leading Indian carrier, who did not wish to be quoted, said that following procedures is paramount when flying to terrains like that in Nepal.
The pilot, who also flies to Nepal, said multiple factors, including pilot fatigue, could have led to the crash.
While flying an aircraft, there is decision-making at every step and a pilot needs to have good rest. So, there could have been pilot fatigue and also the possibility of procedures not being followed, the pilot added.
A pilot with a regional carrier, who has been flying ATR planes for nearly two decades, opined that the particular aircraft could have suffered a stall or there could have been a pilot error. The factors that led to the crash will be clear only after the completion of the investigation, the pilot added.