Mary Pintea – News Editor

mvp5879@psu.edu

Approximately 68 people were killed on Sunday, Jan. 15 when a domestic flight traveling from Kathmandu to Pokhara, both cities in Nepal. Hundreds of rescue personnel tended to the scene, scouring the hillside in search of the 72 people that were on the plane. 

Local TV footage showed rescue workers scouring the debris, searching through the broken sections of the aircraft. The ground surrounding the crash site had caught on fire, with small flames visible in photographs and videos. 

The plane made contact with its destination airport—Pokhara—when it was around Seti Gorge at 10:50 a.m., where it would soon crash. Half of the plane is stuck on the hillside, while the other half has fallen off into the Seti river. A local resident said that he watched the plane tremble in the sky, eventually nosediving into the gorge. 

Those on board were three infants and three children, along with a diverse group of adults: five from India, four from Russia, two from South Korea, one Australian, one French, and one Argentine citizen. France has agreed to participate in the investigation of the crash. 

While there is no clear cause as to why the plane went down, sources pointed out that the female pilot was a widow of a former pilot, who died in a separate plane crash over ten years ago. It is important to note that nearly 350 individuals have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, where 14 of the world’s highest mountains may obstruct views and cause sudden changes in weather—so much so that the European Union has banned Nepali airlines from entering its airspace, citing safety concerns. Jan. 15 was an unusually clear day and would not have impaired the ability of the pilot nor the performance of the plane.