Nepal plane crash: Army hands over flight data recorder, black box to Civil Aviation Authority
Jan 16, 2023
Kathmandu [Nepal], January 16 : The black box of the Yeti Airlines aircraft, which crashed a day ago with 72 people on board was handed over by the Nepal Army to Civil Aviation Authority officials on Monday.
The Nepal Army also handed over the flight data recorder, following the crash. The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft from Kathmandu crashed in Pokhara minutes before touch-down on Sunday. A total of 68 bodies have been recovered so far from the site of the crash.
"Bodies of passengers, whose identities have been established, have been sent for post-mortem. A group of experts also has arrived at the spot. The bodies will be handed over to the families here but those of the crew members, foreigners and the ones yet to be identified will be sent to Kathmandu this evening," Assistant Chief District Officer of Kaski, Nepal, Anil Kumar Shahi told ANI.
Meanwhile, the search and rescue operations at the crash site resumed on Monday morning. The black box is a flight data recorder that records all flight information through a special algorithm.
"Till last evening (Sunday) we had collected 63 bodies and shifted them to a hospital while 3 were spotted but could not be retrieved. Today (Monday), we recovered 6 more bodies. Three more are missing and a search is underway to retrieve these bodies at the earliest," Shahi said.
The aircraft with 68 passengers, including five Indians and four crew members, crashed in Pokhara on Sunday.
The twin-engine turboprop ATR 72 plane crashed en route from Kathmandu to Pokhara.
After the crash, Nepal's Yeti Airlines said that regular flights on Monday will be cancelled to mourn the loss of lives in the aircrash.
In an official statement shared on Twitter, the airlines said, "In mourning for the passengers who lost their lives in the accident of Yeti Airlines 9N ANC ATR 72 500, we would like to inform you that all regular flights for January 16, 2023 have been cancelled."
