LONDON – The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) has released a statement confirming the details of passengers and crew aboard Yeti Airlines flight NYT 691 which crashed near Pokhara Airport yesterday.
CAAN statement
The Yeti Airlines aircraft with flight number NYT 691 and registration nine and agency bound to the Curragh from Kathmandu crashed near Pokhara Airport at 1050 local time.
The aircraft was carrying total 72 persons including four crew members. Following is the number of the passengers and their nationalities:
53 Nepalese, five Indian, four Russian, two Korean, one Australian, one Argentinian, one Irish and one French.
After the information was received, two helicopters were deployed immediately towards the crash site for search and rescue operation.
A ground rescue team consisting of Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, local municipality and Himalayan Rescue Association including rescue and firefighting service of Pokhara regional international airport moved immediately towards the crash site for prompt rescue operation. The rescue operation is still on (sic) progress.
Following is the latest updates:
Total persons on board – 72 including four crew members.
Dead bodies found on the crash site – 68.
Australian response
The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took to social media yesterday to acknowledge the news that one Australian citizen was amongst the passenger complement of the Yeti Airlines flight.
Mr Albanese noted that the Australian government was currently seeking information from Nepalese authorities as to the situation with regards the Australian passenger, who was yet to be positively identified.
According to news source SBS news, the Australian man was a teacher from Sydney, who was reported to be a passionate traveller and had been holidaying through Asia when he boarded the flight.
Black box recovered
The Australian national broadcaster ABC has reported that search teams at the crash site have located both the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) from the wreckage.
Both recorders are reported to be in good shape and will be sent off for analysis.
More than 24 hour after the accident, rescuers are battling poor weather conditions as they continue to search the River Gorge area for the passengers who still remain unaccounted for.
This is a continuing story.
