Eko Hot Blog reports that Nepal authorities have confirmed the death of at least 40 people after an aircraft crashed in the country on Sunday.
A Nepal army spokesperson, Krishna Bhandari, said emergency responders are expected to recover more bodies as hundreds of rescue workers scoured the hillside crash site.
“We expect to recover more bodies,” Bhandari said. “The plane has broken into pieces.”
A Yeti Airlines spokesperson, Sudarshan Bartaula, said there were 72 people onboard – 68 passengers and four crew members.
“Rescue is under way, we don’t know right now if there are survivors,” Bartaula said.
The plane crashed between the old and new Pokhara airports in central Nepal.
The wreckage was on fire and rescue workers were trying to put out the blaze, according to local official Gurudutta Dhakal.
“Responders have already reached there and trying to douse the fire,” Dhakal said. “All agencies are now focused on first dousing the fire and rescuing the passengers.”
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft was operated by Yeti Airlines and flying from Kathmandu, the Himalayan country’s capital, an airport official said.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called an emergency meeting of his cabinet after the crash and urged state agencies to work on rescue operations.
Of the passengers, 53 are said to be Nepalese. According to an airport official, the foreign nationals on board included: one Australian, one French, one Argentinian, four Russians, five Indians, two South Koreans and one person from Ireland.
Aviation accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, often due to its remote runways and sudden weather changes that can make for hazardous conditions.
Sunday’s crash is the worst in the country in five years.
In early 2018, 51 people were killed when a US-Bangla flight travelling from Dhaka in Bangladesh caught fire as it landed in Kathmandu.
Last May, a Tara Air plane crashed in the northern Nepalese district of Mustang, killing 22 people.
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