KATHMANDU: Searchers found both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder on Monday from a passenger flight that crashed killing at least 68 people in Nepal’s worst plane accident in 30 years, officials said.
The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 aircraft, carrying 72 people, to crash in clear weather on Sunday just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara.
Both recorders were in good shape and would be sent for analysis based on the recommendation of the manufacturer, Teknath Sitaula, an official at Kathmandu airport, said on Monday.
Under international aviation rules, the crash investigation agency of the country where the plane was designed and built, is automatically part of the investigation. ATR is based in France and the plane’s engines were manufactured in Canada, by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Rescuers were battling cloudy weather and poor visibility on Monday as they scoured a river gorge for passengers who are unaccounted for, more than 24 hours after the crash. Sixty-eight bodies have been recovered.
Reuters footage from the crash site showed rescuers looking at the charred remains of the plane near the gorge.
The plane, on a scheduled flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara, gateway to the scenic Annapurna mountain range, was carrying 57 Nepalis, five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one person each from Argentina, Ireland, Australia and France.
Pokhara police official Ajay K.C. said the search-and-rescue operation, which stopped because of darkness on Sunday, had resumed. “We will search for the remaining four that are still missing,” he told Reuters. “It is cloudy now... causing a problem in the search.”
Minutes before the aircraft was to land on Sunday, the pilot asked for a change of runway, a spokesperson for Pokhara airport said.
“The permission was granted. “We don’t ask (why), whenever a pilot asks we give permission to change approach,” the spokesperson, Anup Joshi, said.
— AFP
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