Families prepare for funerals days after Nepal plane crash
POKHARA, Nepal — Nepalese authorities Tuesday began returning to families the bodies of plane crash victims and were sending the aircraft’s data recorder to France for analysis as they try to determine what caused the country’s deadliest air disaster in 30 years.
The flight plummeted into a gorge Sunday while on approach to the newly opened Pokhara International Airport in the foothills of the Himalayas, killing all 72 aboard. Searchers found cockpit voice and flight data recorders Monday, and Tuesday shut off a dam to ease efforts to retrieve the last remaining body from the 984-footdeep ravine.
Two more bodies were found earlier Tuesday.
The voice recorder would be analyzed locally, but the flight data recorder would be sent to France, said Jagannath Niraula, spokesperson for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority. The aircraft’s manufacturer, ATR, is headquartered in
Toulouse.
The French air accident investigations agency confirmed it is taking part in the investigation.
The twin-engine ATR 72-500t, operated by Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, was completing the 27-minute flight from the capital, Kathmandu, to the resort city of Pokhara, 125 miles west.
It’s still not clear what caused the crash, less than a minute’s flight from the airport in light wind and clear skies. Aviation experts say it appears that the turboprop went into a stall at low altitude on approach to the airport.
The flight was co-piloted by Anju Khatiwada, 44, who had pursued years of pilot training in the United States after her husband died in a 2006 plane crash while flying for the same airline. Her colleagues described her as a skilled pilot.
In the face of family opposition, she vowed to continue his dream and gave up her nursing career, raising her daughter with the help of her parents. Upon her return to Nepal, she took up flying for Yeti Airlines in 2010, rising to the rank of captain after racking up thousands of hours in the air.
“Anju’s father had asked her not to choose the pilot profession,” said Gopal Regmi, a relative and close friend of her father’s. “After her husband’s tragic death, she was determined to become a pilot.”
The aircraft was carrying 68 passengers, including 15 foreign nationals and four crew members.
Pokhara is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas.
On Tuesday afternoon, more than 150 people gathered at Tulsi Ghat, a cremation ground on the banks of the Seti River in Pokhara, to mourn Tribhuwan Paudel, a journalist and editor at a local newspaper, who died in the crash.
As a priest lit the funeral pyre, close friends of Paudel, 37, came together to reminisce.
Funerals for other victims, many of whom were from the area, are expected in the coming days.