Pilot tried to change landing lanes before Nepal crash
THE pilot of the eti Airlines jet that crashed on Sunday, killing all 72 on board, had wanted to land on a different runway than initially assigned, a Nepalese aviation official told dpa on Monday.
But Jagannath Niraula, a spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said no distress calls were reported from the pilot.
“We haven’t received any reports of distress calls before the crash,” Niraula told dpa. Everything seemed normal until the plane was given permission to land at the newly built Pokhara International Airport, he said.
AThe crash orphaned the 22-year-old daughter of co-pilot Anju Khatiwada, according to a report by the myRep blica news website.
Khatiwada’s first husband also a pilot - had died in a similar crash in 2006, eti Airlines told dpa.
As of Monday, Khatiwada had not officially been identified among the victims of the crash.
So far 69 bodies from the 72 on board have been recovered. No survivors are expected.
The crash is one of the worst in the history of Nepal, a country with a poor aviation safety record.
“Our teams are still searching for the remaining three people on board the plane,” a senior administrator in the Kaski district said.
“It’s taking longer than expected because the wreckage of the plane is scattered in a gorge,” he said.
The aircraft was in contact with the local air traffic control room until 10:50 am (05:05 GMT) on Sunday, according to the CAAN.
Hundreds of emergency personnel as well as members of the army were mobilized in the search and rescue effort.
There were 53 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France on board the flight, CAAN said.
Meanwhile a video circulating on social media was reportedly made by one of the passengers. It was apparently streamed on Facebook and shows the last 90 seconds before the crash.
It initially shows several people laughing on the plane and a view out of the window. The landing approach seems calm, then suddenly fire breaks out. According to dpa’s factchecking team, the flight path, as seen from the plane’s window, matches the information provided by authorities.
A man whose name was on an official list of passenger contacts, when reached by dpa, confirmed that a man in the video was his friend and was wearing the same clothes as before the flight.
Searchers on Monday found both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the flight. The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the aircraft to crash.
Both recorders were in good shape and would be sent for analysis based on the recommendation of the manufacturer, Teknath Sitaula, an official at the Kathmandu airport, told Reuters.
Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal rushed to the airport after the crash on Sunday. He also announced the setting up of a panel to investigate the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in the future.
“Our first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this,” the plane’s France-based manufacturer ATR said in a statement on Sunday.
“ATR specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer.”
Nearly 350 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
Sunday’s crash is Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it plowed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.