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A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed in Nepal, killing dozens

A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed in Nepal, killing dozens
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Sunday, 15 January, 2023, 18:42

An aircraft with 72 people on board crashed in Nepal on Sunday, a spokesman for Yeti Airlines said, as per news agency AFP.

Nepal prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the plane was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara in central Nepal, and urged security personnel and the general public to help with the rescue efforts, Associated Press reported. Yeti Airlines, whose flight crashed earlier in the day, has been flying commercial aircraft for more than two decades now. It currently has a fleet of six ATR planes.

First, you see a plane careening on its side, against a deep blue sky. Then it disappears behind buildings. And then you hear the crash.

This footage — of the moment an airliner with 72 people aboard crashed Sunday in central Nepal – appears to have been recorded by a bystander watering plants on their balcony. It was tweeted by regional media and aviation sources.

More video recorded moments later shows a smoking crater at the crash site. A photo shows a huge chunk of the fuselage – with the plane's ID number clearly visible – dangling on the edge.

Dozens of bodies have been recovered. There's no word on any survivors. On Sunday morning, authorities said at least 68 people had been confirmed dead.

That makes this Nepal's deadliest plane crash in decades.

It was a domestic flight by a Nepali carrier, Yeti Airlines. The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft took off early Sunday from Nepal's capital Kathmandu, and crashed around 11 a.m. local time in Pokhara – a popular tourist town in central Nepal that's known as a gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a Himalayan hiking route.