Nepal plane crash: Black box recovered fromaccident site as all 72 on board believed to be dead

PTI, KATHMANDU, JANUARY 16, 2023: All 72 people, including five Indian passengers, on board the crashed Yeti Airlines aircraft are believed to be dead as rescue workers made little progress in finding any survivors even as they recovered one more body and the black box from the accident site, officials said on Monday.

Officials said 41 bodies out of 69 recovered so far have been identified as Nepal observed a national day of mourning 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.

According to Kathmandu airport officials, the boxes were recovered from the site of the accident, a day after Yeti Airlines' 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport minutes before landing. The boxes were handed over to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), said Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesperson of the Yeti Airlines. Rescue workers recovered one more body on Monday. 

So far, 69 bodies have been recovered. Rescuers struggled to recover the remaining three bodies from the crash site due to the difficult terrain. "It's very difficult to recover the bodies from the 300 metres deep gorge which is very narrow as well. We have been using all available equipment to make the mission successful," Tek Bahadur KC, chief district officer of Kaski, was quoted as saying by the Kathmandu Post. 

The operation will resume on Tuesday to recover the bodies, he said. Nepal's civil aviation body said that 41 of the 69 bodies have been identified so far. The five Indians, all reportedly from Uttar Pradesh, have been identified as Abhisekh Kushwaha,25, Bishal Sharma, 22, Anil Kumar Rajbhar, 27, Sonu Jaiswal, 35, and Sanjaya Jaiswal.

Of the five Indians, four were planning to participate in paragliding activities in the tourist hub of Pokhara, said a local resident, who travelled with them to Nepal.