At least 64 dead after ATR-72 flown by Yeti Airlines crashes near central Nepal - Crashed near the second largest city, Pokhara.

[LegoTugboat]

At least 64 dead as ATR 72 Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu with 15 foreigners on board turns sharply in midair before smashing into ground near tourist town​

Plane with 72 people on board crashes near airport in Nepal

BREAKING: Police have now confirmed at least 64 people were killed today when a domestic flight crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the central resort town of Pokhara, Nepal.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Police have confirmed at least 64 people were killed today when a domestic flight crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the central resort town of Pokhara.

Harrowing footage showed the plane moments before the disaster - which is the small Himalayan country's worst crash in nearly five years.
Hundreds of rescue workers continued to scour the hillside site where the plane of domestic carrier Yeti Airlines, flying from the capital Kathmandu, went down.

'Rescue operations are on. Weather was clear,' said Jagannath Niroula, a spokesman for Nepal civil aviation authority, which confirmed the latest death toll as 44. Elsewhere, Gurudatta Dhakal, assistant chief official of Kaski district, said some survivors had been taken to hospital.
Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft.

'The plane is burning,' said police official Ajay K.C., adding that rescue workers were having difficulty reaching the site in a gorge between two hills near the tourist town's airport.
The craft made contact with the airport from Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m. (0505 GMT), the aviation authority said in a statement. 'Then it crashed.'

'Half of the plane is on the hillside,' said Arun Tamu, a local resident, who told Reuters he reached the site minutes after the plane went down. 'The other half has fallen into the gorge of the Seti river.'

Khum Bahadur Chhetri said he watched from the roof of his house as the flight approached.
'I saw the plane trembling, moving left and right, and then suddenly its nose dived and it went into the gorge,' Chhetri told Reuters, adding that local residents took two passengers to a hospital.

There were 72 people on the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft operated by Yeti in today's disaster, including two infants and four crew members, said airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula.

The plane had five Indians, four Russians, one Irish, two South Korean, one Australian, one French and one Argentinian national onboard, a Nepal airport official said.
The plane was 15 years old, according to flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

'We expect to recover more bodies,' said army spokesman Krishna Bhandari. 'The plane has broken into pieces.'

Russian Ambassador to Nepal Alexei Novikov confirmed the death of four Russians aboard the crashed plane.
'Unfortunately, four citizens of the Russian Federation died. We are in constant contact with the Nepalese authorities and will provide all necessary assistance to the relatives of the dead Russians,' he said.

A South Korean embassy official said: 'Two South Koreans are on the list of passengers. We are trying to confirm whether they were actually on board and their identities.'

The ATR72 is a widely used twin engine turboprop plane manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Italy's Leonardo. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 planes, according to its website.
Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions.

 

[Troonos]

Value every day you have. You aren't guaranteed tomorrow.

 

[Idiotron]

Not to make fun of this but... Yeti Airlines crashes in Nepal... where the Yeti supposedly live... coincidence?

 

[Tomato flowers]

Lord imagine getting on a flight in Nepal, home of Mount Everest in a dang puddle jumper. I’m not afraid to fly but that would scare the shit out of me.

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE RETURNS]

Lord imagine getting on a flight in Nepal, home of Mount Everest in a dang puddle jumper. I’m not afraid to fly but that would scare the shit out of me.

Give me a parachute before departure and we good.

 

[F_Break]

I'm not sure how legit this is but I found it under the hashtag for the crash on twitter.

 

[TheDarknessGrows]

I'm not sure how legit this is but I found it under the hashtag for the crash on twitter.

View attachment 4271342

Plane crashes are fucking rad. Cool video!

 

[Tsukasa Kadoya]

I'm not sure how legit this is but I found it under the hashtag for the crash on twitter.

View attachment 4271342

Holy shit, imagine one minute chilling and the next being burned alive as the entire cabin is filled with fire.
That's a fate no one should suffer.

 

[12345]

which is the small Himalayan country's worst crash in nearly five years.

That is so little time between major accidents.

 

[WelperHelper99]

I saw video of the crash on the news. The turboprops were still turning, so no clue what happened. Also did research into the plane. Codesigned by France and Italy, it's a regional airliner, holds 72 passengers, first flight was in 88, so it's time tested. It's been used as a anti Submarine aircraft oddly enough. Point is I don't think it was the plane's fault. Possibly poor weather?

 

[Wine em Dine em 69 em]

Lord imagine getting on a flight in Nepal, home of Mount Everest in a dang puddle jumper. I’m not afraid to fly but that would scare the shit out of me.

This is the flight you take before you get on the little plane into Lukla, the most dangerous airport in the world. From there it’s two week hike to Everest Base Camp. Look up landing at Lukla on YouTube.
The video is sickening, so is the aftermath, there’s dozens of dudes standing around filming while others are in sandals and no gloves trying to pull people out of the burning mangled plane.

 

[Cat Menagerie]

I'm not sure how legit this is but I found it under the hashtag for the crash on twitter.

View attachment 4271342

From what I saw, the plane banks sharply to the left, then there is a loud explosion and immediate conflagration. It descends (or falls, I suppose) a few more seconds while in flames and probably inverted. Honestly I'd be surprised if anyone survived beyond the explosion. I hope not, anyway.

The weather appeared clear with no wind, so this isn't a Delta 191 situation. It's probably going to boil down to a catastrophic mechanical failure, pilot error, or pilot fatigue.

ETA...The ATR 72 is a reliable plane, but ultimately a plane is only as reliable as their maintenance allows them to be.

 

[Wine em Dine em 69 em]

From what I saw, the plane banks sharply to the left, then there is a loud explosion and immediate conflagration. It descends (or falls, I suppose) a few more seconds while in flames and probably inverted. Honestly I'd be surprised if anyone survived beyond the explosion. I hope not, anyway.

The weather appeared clear with no wind, so this isn't a Delta 191 situation. It's probably going to boil down to a catastrophic mechanical failure, pilot error, or pilot fatigue.

I saw a couple comments about low speed stall, whatever it was happened very quickly if the video from inside the plane is authentic.
Speaking of, the man seems to have been filming the approach for some time, maybe it was a bumpy ride, or maybe he was just excited.

 

[Halmaz]

At least it was quick.
The video is insane. It looks like a perfectly normal approach for landing, then, within seconds, it's just hell on Earth. I wonder what might have happened, as the plane was still somewhat high, based on the last glimpse from the window. My guess is, they slammed into the hillside somehow. If I only saw the video, my other tip would have been mid air collision.

 

[Naes]

At least it was quick.
The video is insane. It looks like a perfectly normal approach for landing, then, within seconds, it's just hell on Earth. I wonder what might have happened, as the plane was still somewhat high, based on the last glimpse from the window. My guess is, they slammed into the hillside somehow. If I only saw the video, my other tip would have been mid air collision.

There is another video of the plane taken from people standing outside, that plane did a 180 and fell. Saw them on twatter, will try to find again;

Edit. found it.

 

[Pissmaster]

I'm not sure how legit this is but I found it under the hashtag for the crash on twitter.

View attachment 4271342

I have no clue if that's fake or not, but it certainly follow the progression of a film student's idea of what a found footage plane crash would look like.

Normal footage of some guy filming himself and looking out the window -> sounds of chaos with fullscreen solid colors, indicating the camera's covered up by something translucent -> it lingers on this creepypasta-looking shot of something unspecific -> just pure fire -> camera rotates and we see a dead tree, indicating we're outside now -> the camera's covered by the guy's fingers as he is presumably scrambling to escape

There is another video of the plane taken from people standing outside, that plane did a 180 and fell. Saw them on twatter, will try to find again;

View attachment 4272799

Edit. found it.

Probably fake, camera pans down on the exact frame when the right wing would underlap that roof

 

[Archie_Kimkicker]

Blanco's prelim analysis.

 

[RodgerDodger]

I'm actually rather astonished. I think the air crash report forms in Nepal come pre-filled out to say "controlled flight into terrain". Surprisingly this does not look to be that.

Pure speculation. But first best guess is something catastrophic happened in the left engine. Probably the prop got set to thrust reverse mode. Something caused the prop to suddenly cause massive drag. Which is what caused that roll and dive to the left. And whatever it was put enough strain on the engine for it to rip apart and explode seconds later. Maybe a bird strike? But the way its described screams something went wrong with the blade pitch first. Then the engine exploded.

 

[Halmaz]

There is another video of the plane taken from people standing outside, that plane did a 180 and fell.

Oof. Thanks for the video. It looks like something catastrophically failed and the pilots lost control and had zero time to do anything. Sad.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

Plane crashes are some of the worst ways to go out as far as death is concerned. If anything, the fact that 60+ people died because of it proves that there was huge malfunctions that should have been carefully checked with their engine.

I’m not even sure, though, that this could have been avoided.