Nepal: Black box found at Yeti Airlines plane crash site

PTI

Kathmandu, January 16

All 72 persons, 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.

Was once owned by Kingfisher airlines

The crashed ATR-72 Nepalese passenger plane was previously used by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines owned by liquor baron Vijay Mallya, according to Cirium Fleets data. PTI

Kerala family mourns death of friends

The family of a Christian priest in Kerala is mourning the death of three of their friends — Raju, Rabin and Anil — who died in the plane crash in Nepal while returning home after attending the missionary's funeral at Anikadu near Pathanamthitta, Kerala, on Friday. PTI

They said 41 bodies out of 69 recovered so far had 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.

The Cockpit Voice Recorder records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots and engine noises. The flight data recorder records more than 80 different types of information such as speed, altitude and direction, as well as pilot actions and performance of important systems.

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, said Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesperson of the Yeti Airlines.

The boxes could offer vital clues on Sunday's crash — Nepal's deadliest aviation accident in over 30 years.

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. The operation will resume on Tuesday, he said.

Nepal's civil aviation body said that 41 of the 69 bodies have been identified so far.

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.

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