At least 68 people have been killed when a domestic Yeti Airlines flight crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, the worst air crash in three decades in the tiny Himalayan nation.
Hundreds of rescuers searched the hillside on Sunday where the flight carrying 72 people from the capital Kathmandu crashed. Officials late in the evening called off search operations for the day, saying they would resume on Monday.
Local television footage earlier showed rescue workers scrambling through broken sections of the plane. Part of the ground near the crash site was scorched, with visible licks of flame.
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The weather had been clear and there was no immediate indication of what caused the crash.
An Australian is believed to have been on board. The Australian embassy is urgently seeking to confirm his welfare, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement on Monday.
It was Nepal’s deadliest air crash since 1992, the Air Safety Network database showed, when a Pakistan International Airlines Airbus A300 crashed into a hill on approach to Kathmandu, and killing all 167 people on board.
Nearly 350 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mount Everest, where sudden weather changes can lead to dangerous conditions.
The European Union has banned Nepali airlines from its airspace since 2013, citing security concerns.
The plane touched down at Pokhara airport from Seti Gorge at 10.50 am on Sunday, the Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. At least 68 people were confirmed dead.
The government has set up a panel to investigate the cause of the accident and is expected to report within 45 days, Finance Minister Bishnu Paudel told reporters.
Among the passengers were five Indians, four Russians and an Irishman, two South Koreans, an Australian, a Frenchman and an Argentinian.
The trip to Pokhara, Nepal’s second largest city, nestled beneath the picturesque Annapurna mountain range, from the capital Kathmandu is one of the country’s most popular tourist routes, with many preferring a short flight over a six-hour journey through mountainous roads.
A Pokhara airport spokesman said the plane crashed on approach to the airport, adding that “the plane was cruising at 12,500 feet and was in a normal descent.” The weather on Sunday was clear.
Flight-tracking website FlightRadar24 said on Twitter that the Yeti Airlines plane was 15 years old and equipped with an old transponder with unreliable data. He added that the last transponder signal was received at an altitude of 2875 feet above mean sea level.
Pokhara Airport is about 2700 feet above mean sea level, according to FlightRadar24.
On its website, Yeti describes itself as a leading national carrier. Its fleet consists of six ATR 72-500s, including the one that crashed. It also owns Tara Air, and the two together offer the “broadest network” in Nepal, according to the company.
Yeti said it had canceled all its scheduled flights for Monday in “mourning for the passengers who lost their lives”.
European aircraft manufacturer ATR’s ATR72 is a widely used twin-engine turboprop aircraft manufactured by a joint venture of Airbus and Leonardo of Italy. Yeti Airlines has a fleet of six ATR72-500 aircraft, according to its website.
“ATR specialists are fully committed to supporting both the research and the client,” ATR said in a statement.
Airbus and Leonardo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.