Plane Crash: Nepal Suffers Worst Air Disaster In 30 Years As Death Toll Rises To 68

• A plane crash in Nepal on Sunday killed at least 68 people.

• The aircraft was conveying 72 people.

• The crash was Nepal’s deadliest in 30 years.

Eko Hot Blog reports that a Nepal government official has confirmed that at least 68 people were killed Sunday when an aircraft went down near the city of Pokhara in central Nepal.

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The crash was the country’s deadliest plane crash in more than 30 years.

Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesman for Yeti Airlines, the operator of the crashed ATR 72 plane, said 72 people, including four crew members and 68 passengers, were on board when the aircraft crashed.

Nepal’s civil aviation authority reported that 37 were men, 25 were women, three were children and three were infants.

Army spokesman Krishna Prasad Bhandar said search efforts were called off after dark, and will resume Monday morning.

Hundreds of first responders had been working to locate the remaining four individuals before then.

Among the dead is at least one infant, according to the Nepal’s civil aviation authority.

Sunday’s incident was the third-deadliest crash in Nepal’s history, according to data from the Aviation Safety Network.

The only incidents in which more people were killed took place in July and September 1992. Those crashes involved aircraft run by Thai Airways and Pakistan International airlines and left 113 and 167 people dead, respectively.

Nepal’s Yeti Airlines said it was canceling all regular flights on Monday, January 16, in mourning for the victims of the crash.

The Himalayan country of Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents. The accidents are often due to the country’s remote runways and sudden weather changes that can make for hazardous conditions.

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Last May, a Tara Air flight carrying 22 people crashed into a Himalayan mountain at an altitude of about 14,500 feet. That was Nepal’s 19th plane crash in 10 years.

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