Nepal plane crash: 42 of 70 retrieved bodies identified, kin of 4 UP victims leave for Kathmandu

Rescuers have retrieved the bodies of 70 out of the 72 people that died after a Yeti Airlines passenger plane crashed into a river gorge moments before landing.

At the newly-opened airport in central Nepal’s resort city of Pokhara due to a technical glitch on Sunday morning.

Bodies of two passengers remained missing as rescue operations were suspended for Monday night. Officials said 42 bodies out of 70 recovered so far have been identified as Nepal observed a national day of mourning on Monday.

Authorities said autopsies of only 24 victims will be conducted in the Pokhra Hospital and the rest of the bodies will be sent to bigger hospitals.

The flight was en route from Kathmandu to Pokhara. The plane took off from Tribhuvan International Airport at 10:33 am on Sunday. The aircraft crashed into forested land located on the banks of the Seti Gandaki River that flows between the old domestic airport and Pokhra International Airport. “53 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, one Irish national, two Koreans, one Argentinian, and a French national were on board at the time of the mishap,” the Airport authority officials said.

As many as 42 dead bodies out of the 70 recovered ones have been identified, Nepal Police said. Meanwhile, two bodies are yet to be found.

A medical team has been airlifted from the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Kathmandu. In a statement, Yeti Airlines said that a Nepali Army helicopter was in Pokhara to airlift bodies of foreign nationals, crew members, and of those whose identities have not been established to Kathmandu for forensic examination to establish their identities.

The family members of four men from Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh who were killed in the plane crash in Nepal left for Kathmandu on Monday to receive the bodies, a district administration official said. “The bodies will be handed over to them after due identification and completion of all formalities. The bodies will be brought to the district by road. It might take 2-3 days,” Ghazipur District Magistrate Aryaka Akhauri said.

The Yeti airlines that crashed in Pokhara on Saturday was carrying among others, three close friends of a family in Pathanamthitta, about 100 kilometres from the state capital. The family members who had already lost a male elder, were now inconsolable as three of their friends from Nepal who had come to attend the funeral and were returning to Pokhra in the ill-fated Yeti flight, had met with an untimely end.

The black box of the crashed Yeti Airlines’ aircraft with 72 people, including five Indians, on board was recovered on Monday. Both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered as search and rescue teams rappelled down a 300-metre gorge to continue their efforts, which were suspended overnight, officials said.