A spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority has disclosed that a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder have been retrieved from the plane crash site.
The passenger plane, ATR 72 crashed on its way to a newly opened airport in the tourist town of Pokhara.
Jagannath Niraula iterated that the boxes were found on Monday, January 16, 2023, a day after the ATR-72 aircraft crashed. He added that they will be handed over to investigators.
Two more bodies were found on Monday morning; making the count 68 dead out of the 72 people aboard.
Pemba Sherpa, Spokesperson for Yeti Airlines, also confirmed that both the flight data and the cockpit voice recorders have been found.
It remains unclear what caused the crash, the Himalayan country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades. The weather was mild and not windy on the day of the crash.
Amit Singh, an experienced pilot and founder of India’s Flight Safety Foundation, revealed that the video of the crash appears to show a stall, a situation in which a plane loses lift, especially likely at low airspeeds.
A pilot who routinely flies an ATR 72-500 plane from India to Nepal, noted that the region’s topography, with its mountain peaks and narrow valleys, increases the risk of accidents and sometimes requires pilots to fly by sight rather than relying on instruments.
The pilot, who works for a private Indian airline and did not want to be named due to company policy, called ATR 72-500 an “unforgiving aircraft” if the pilot is not highly skilled and familiar with the region’s terrain and wind speeds.
Hundreds of people gathered outside the Pokhara Academy of Health and Science, Western Hospital, where the bodies are being kept. Relatives and friends of victims, many of whom were from Pokhara, consoled one another as they waited.
Australian Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, expressed his condolences. Chalmers said that “our hearts go out to all of the families of the crew and passengers” who died, adding that the government was providing consular support to the family of an Australian who was aboard the plane.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety database, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.
Pokhara, a lakeside city, is a popular tourist destination and gateway to the Himalayas. It serves as the starting point for the famous Annapurna Circuit trekking route, with more than 181,000 foreigners visiting the area in 2019.
A government committee is now investigating the cause of the crash, with assistance from French authorities. The Yeti Airlines plane was manufactured by aerospace company ATR, headquartered in France.
“Hostile Topography” And “Diverse Weather Patterns”; Biggest Risk To Flights
According to a 2019 safety report from Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, the country’s “hostile topography” and “diverse weather patterns” were the biggest dangers to flights in the country.
The report revealed that such accidents happened at airports that had short strips of runway for takeoff and landing and most were due to pilot error.
The report added that 37% of all air crashes in Nepal between 2009 and 2018 were due to pilot error, not counting helicopters and recreational flights.
In 2015, the International Civil Aviation Organization(ICAO), a United Nations agency, prioritized helping Nepal through its Aviation Safety Implementation Assistance Partnership. Two years later, the ICAO and Nepal announced a partnership to resolve safety concerns.
While the country has in recent years made improvements in its safety standards, challenges remain.
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