British ballet star among air crash victims
A BRITISH ballet dancer was among dozens of people who died when a passenger aircraft crashed in Nepal while coming in to land.
The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed that Ruan Crighton had been on board when it came down in the central city of Pokhara with 72 people on board.
Crighton, 34, from Brentwood, Essex, graduated from the Central School of Ballet in 2008, before joining the Slovak National Theatre.
In 2013 Crighton joined the Finnish National Opera and Ballet for six years.
At the time of his death he was a student at the European School of Physiotherapy and was due to finish his studies next year.
At the age of 19, the BBC interviewed Crighton about his ballet career, declaring he was “set for stardom”.
Rescue authorities have recovered 69 bodies and believe the three missing people did not survive.
Fifteen foreigners were among those on board, according to Nepal’s aviation authority. Distressing mobile phone footage taken from inside the plane appeared to show the final minutes before the crash.
In footage taken by a passenger out of a window as the plane came in to land, buildings, roads and greenery are visible below.
The video shows passengers sitting on board before a sudden loud explosion, followed by screams. Flames then fill the screen.
“We pray for a miracle. But the hope of finding anyone alive is nil,” said Tek Bahadur, a senior local official.
“We will resume the search operation tomorrow morning.” The flight recorder has been retrieved and may provide clues to the cause of Sunday’s crash. Yeti Airlines flight ATR 72 went down on approach to a newly-opened airport, plummeting into a steep gorge where it burst into flames.
Nepal has one of the world’s worst aircraft safety records, with 359 people dying in aviation accidents since 2000.