The aircraft hit a cliff, says official; reason not known
Thirteen Indians were among the 15 people who died when a plane crashed in north-western Nepal on Monday morning.
The Agni Air Dornier 9N AIG aircraft had flown from the tourist hub of Pokhara to Jomsom in the upper Himalayas, but crashed on its return after being unable to land there. Jomsom in Mustang district lies at the heart of the Annapurna range, and is close to Muktinath temple — which the Indian tourists had planned to visit.
The pilot, P S Pathak, and copilot, S D Maharjan, died on the spot. A Nepali air-hostess, two Danes, and three Indians — including two children — survived. The Indian adult survivor, Tirumala Kidambi Sreekanth, is suffering from head injury and is understood to be critical. They are being treated in Pokhara, while the bodies of the dead have been brought back to Kathmandu.
Tri Ratna Manandhar, Director General of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), told The Hindu that it was too early to pin-point the reasons for the crash. “The government has set up an investigations team. We cannot speculate about the reasons right now.” There was some confusion through the day about whether the plane had crashed while attempting to land in Jomsom, or had taken off from there, or had been diverted back to Pokhara after being unable to land in Jomsom. Mr Manandhar clarified the situation, saying, ‘The pilot said he was diverting back to Pokhara and after turning, the aircraft hit a cliff.”
Aviation expert, Hemant Arjyal, said, “If the plane had turned back, the question is whether it was because of a technical snag or weather. The crash site is quite close to Jomsom airport.” The latest crash comes eight months after a mountain flight of Buddha Air, another private sector airline, crashed near Kathmandu, killing19 passengers, including 10 Indians. There have been over half a dozen air-crashes involving small airplanes in recent years in Nepal.
In a statement, the Indian embassy in Kathmandu said they were maintaining close contact with Nepal's authorities, ‘who extended the fullest cooperation in carrying out search and relief operations at the site of the crash'. The embassy's Pension Paying Office in Pokhara was providing active support and relief to the Indians being treated at the Manipal hospital there. The embassy also set up an information centre in Kathmandu, numbers for which are 00-977-1-4410900/4411699 (extension 4109).
External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said he was ‘deeply saddened’ to hear about the crash. He conveyed ‘his deep condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives in the accident’.
Keywords: Nepal plane crash
Sad news. May their souls rest in peace.
As usual,the Indian embassy has not evinced due care and interest to help the relatives to retrieve their bodies from Neapal to their native places in India. They were reports of indifferent and lethargic on the part of our embassy officials. It is reported in the tamil daiy but for a support of a tamil from Tiruchy working in our high commission enabled the relatives to get some relief through him.
Our men in our diplomatic mission prove they are all mere job holders.NO patriotism on their part.All these unworthy people should be weeded out from diplomatic services.Our MPs are not alert in such matters.Of course they are some good people who are conscious of their committments to their countrymen.We are talking about those people who are indifferent in their duties to their fellow citizens.
Our parliament should exercise greater conrol over the functioning of our diplomatic services and should not feel reluctant to pull up those unmindful.
Thirteen Indians were among the 15 people who died when a plane crashed in north-western Nepal on Monday morning. I feel really sad for tragedy taken place .My sincere condolence for the victims of plane crash . It would be happy if Nepal Government takes this matter seriously and arrange other route for going to Muktinath other than flight route.
Thirteen Indians were among the 15 people who died when a plane crashed in north-western Nepal on Monday morning. I feel really sad for tragedy taken place .My sincere condolence for the victims of plane crash . It would be happy if Nepal Government takes this matter seriously and arrange other route for going to Muktinath other than flight route.
My hearty condolence to all the victims of this tragic accident. Last year me and my family waited for 3 days in Pokhra for weather clearance to go to Muktinath, but we returned back to Katmandu as we could not get green signal. I also recommend Nepal Govt to make a road way from Pokhra to Muktinath that would eliminate this risk and attract more tourists.
May their soul rest in peace.My heartly condolences to all the family members of the victims of this tragedy.It was really a shocking news for all of us.
My sincere condolence to the families of all victims of the plane crash tragedy. especially the child artist baby tharuni's death. My hearty condolence once again.
Oh God! My sincere condolences to the families of the victims. Rest in peace.
The tragic crash of Dornier is yet another reminder of dangers of flying in mountainous Himalayan region. Investigation will reveal the exact cause of the accident, may be it is due to mechanical failure or most likely caused by notoriously fickle Himalayan weather. It is not uncommon for the flight crew to encounter 'Breaking waves' and 'rotors' associated with mountain waves which are among the more hazardous phenomenon that pilots can experience. Australian Transport Safety Bureau defines it as "the result of flowing air being forced to rise up the windward side of a mountain barrier, then as a result of certain atmospheric conditions, sinking down the leeward side. This perturbation develops into a series of standing waves downstream from the barrier, and may extend for hundreds of kilometers over clear areas of land and open water."
My sincere condolences to the families of the victims of this tragedy. Jomsom is a particularly tricky airport to negotiate, particularly because of the shear forces between strong winds that criss cross in this area. One of the most beautiful places in the world, so stark and clear in its hostile environment, but this is not for the faint hearted. I have been there a few times, by flight, on foot and four wheel drive, and I sincerely hope tourists going to Muktinath do not have to go through these thrillingly dangerous flights. I'd request the Nepal government to kindly expedite the road laying from Beni to Muktinath so people can get to see all the beauty without the risk of flying into this area.
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