The deadly air crash in Nepal on Sunday provides to the Himalayan nation’s fame as essentially the most harmful place to fly on the planet.

All 68 passengers and 4 crew on Yeti Airways Flight 691 have been killed within the catastrophe in Pokhara, Nepal’s second-largest metropolis and a gateway for vacationers exploring the Annapurna mountain vary.

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In keeping with Aviation Security Community knowledge, the deadly crash was the eleventh in Nepal in as a few years. Solely final Could, 22 individuals died when a Tara Air flight got here down en route from Pokhara to the trekking base of Jomsom. The newest tragedy, the deadliest since 1992, has led to a spate of vacationer cancelations, in response to travel-industry executives, costing the nation very important income.

Nepal’s topography and climate patterns make flying tougher than in lots of different locations. In 2015, the United Nations-backed Worldwide Civil Aviation Group prioritized the nation for technical help, later saying its “lovely however rugged terrain makes the security of air operations more difficult than in different areas of the world.”

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Black Packing containers From Crashed Yeti Airways Aircraft Situated in Nepal

Nepal additionally has among the world’s most harmful roads, including to the danger that residents and guests face when touring across the vertiginous nation. Tourism is a key {industry}, contributing nearly 7% of gross home product, in response to the World Financial institution.

About 150,000 international vacationers traveled to Nepal in 2021, nearly all arriving by air, in response to the newest knowledge accessible on Nepal’s tourism ministry web site. The busy capital Kathmandu is the primary entrance level for bigger plane, with vacationers usually taking smaller planes to extra distant areas that includes eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, together with Mount Everest

Subhash Goyal, founder and chairman of STIC Journey and Air Constitution Group, one in every of India’s largest tourism teams, mentioned Sunday’s crash has already had an adversarial influence on demand, with 60% of Nepal bookings canceled, principally by international guests, particularly Europeans.

The doomed Yeti Airways flight — utilizing a twin-engine ATR 72 turboprop — took off from Kathmandu at 10:32 a.m. native time and crashed at about 11 a.m. ATR is a three way partnership between planemaking powerhouse Airbus SE and Italy’s Leonardo SpA.

There have been 53 Nepalese on board, in addition to 5 Indians, 4 Russians, two Koreans, and one individual from every of Australia, Argentina, Eire and France, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal mentioned in an announcement.

Yeti additionally operated a airplane that crashed in 2008 at Lukla’s Tenzing-Hillary Airport, which has a runway that angles dramatically down towards a valley. Eighteen passengers and crew died.

Different latest disasters embody the lack of a US-Bangla Airways flight from Dhaka, Bangladesh, in Kathmandu in 2018, which killed 51 individuals.

In keeping with its web site, Yeti has six ATR 72-500s in its fleet powered by PW127 engines from the Pratt & Whitney unit of Raytheon Applied sciences Corp.

Pilots might have misplaced management of the airplane in Sunday’s catastrophe, Neil Hansford, chairman of consultancy Strategic Aviation Options, instructed the Australia Broadcasting Corp. Mountains, tough terrain and mists that descend in Nepal are hostile to flying, he mentioned.

A video purportedly taken shortly earlier than the crash seems to point out the airplane getting into right into a steep banking maneuver because it approaches Pokhara airport, a brand new facility inaugurated by Nepal’s prime minister solely this month.

All airways licensed by Nepal’s aviation authorities are prohibited from flying to Europe, in response to the newest banned listing revealed in November. That features 20 named carriers, Yeti amongst them.