INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
KATHMANDU, NEPAL, JANUARY 24Authorities in Nepal have handed to relatives the bodies
of 60 of the 72 people killed in a plane crash last week, the airline said.
Rescuers were still searching for two bodies at the site where
a Yeti Airlines flight with 72 on board crashed on Jan
15 at the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu.
Among the 10 other bodies recovered, six have
been identified and will be returned to relatives soon and four others still need to be identified, the airline said in a statement late
Monday.
The twin-engine ATR 72-500 aircraft plummeted into a gorge as it was approaching Pokhara International Airport in the Himalayan
The crash site is about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) from the runway at an elevation of about 820 meters (2,700 feet).
While it's still not
clear what caused the crash, some aviation experts say video taken from the ground of the plane's last moments indicated it went into a
stall, although it's unclear why.
Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority has also said the airport's instrument landing system will not be
26 - eight weeks after the airport began operations on January 1
Aviation safety experts have said the absence reflects the poor air safety record in Nepal, where mountainous terrain and the resulting
variable weather conditions make flying conditions difficult.
The crash is Nepal's deadliest since 1992, when a Pakistan International
Airlines plane plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu, killing all 167 people on board
There have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946, according to the Safety Matters Foundation.
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com