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| Rescue teams work at the wreckage of a Yeti Airlines ATR72 aircraft that crashed in Pokhara, Nepal, Sunday. EPA-Yonhap |
By Kang Seung-woo
A passenger aircraft carrying 72 people, including two Koreans, crashed in Nepal, Sunday, according to Seoul's foreign ministry. Chances of finding survivors appear to be slim.
According to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), the ATR-72 plane, operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara, took off at 10:33 a.m. from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport, with 68 passengers and four crew members aboard. It crashed around 11 a.m. while landing on the runway of Pokhara International Airport. The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
Pokhara is a tourist town in Nepal that is also known as the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas.
As of 9:40 p.m., Sunday, 68 people had been confirmed dead, according to the CAAN, although it did not elaborate on the nationalities of the recovered bodies.
Along with the two Koreans, the passenger list also included 13 other foreign nationals: five from India, four from Russia and one each from Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland, according to media reports.
"The Korean Embassy in Nepal has confirmed that two Korean nationals were among the 72 people aboard," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a media statement.
In the wake of the airplane crash, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo ordered the foreign ministry to swiftly figure out whether any Koreans suffered damage and to provide necessary assistance to the families of those presumed to have been on the aircraft, according to his office.
The ministry said the embassy has dispatched officials to the crash site to check if they are alive and provide necessary consular assistance. It also set up an overseas Koreans protection task force headed by Second Vice Foreign Minister Lee Do-hoon to handle the case.
According to media reports, Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called an emergency meeting of his cabinet and ordered all government agencies to carry out immediate rescue and relief operations. In addition, a panel to investigate the cause of the crash has been set up.
The Sunday crash is already the Himalayan country's worst air accident in five years, when a U.S.-Bangla Airlines passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed in Kathmandu, killing 51 of the 71 people aboard.
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