Australian passenger onboard fatal Nepal plane crash
In what is being described as Nepal’s deadliest airplane accident in 30 years, at least 68 people are dead after a regional passenger plane carrying 72 passengers – including an Australian – crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara.
A spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said they are urgently clarifying whether the Australian onboard survived the crash.
Footage shared on Twitter by a BBC journalist shows the aircraft violently rolling shortly before it crashed.
"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is aware of reports an Australian was on board the Yeti Airlines flight which crashed in Nepal on Sunday 15 January," a spokesperson said. "The Australian Embassy is urgently seeking to confirm the welfare of the Australian."
Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority announced the crash on Twitter on Sunday, while rescuers were scouring the crash site near the Seti River, about 1.6 kilometres away from Pokhara International Airport.
Rescuers used ropes to pull out bodies from the wreckage, parts of which were hanging over the edge of the gorge. Some bodies, burned beyond recognition, were carried by firefighters to hospitals, where grief-stricken relatives had assembled.
It was not immediately clear what caused the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines, to crash. It was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, a 27-minute flight. It was carrying 68 passengers including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
Image: Twitter