SINGAPORE – A Yeti Air ATR72-500 carrying 68 passengers and four crew crashed while on approach to Pokhara International Airport in Nepal, on the morning of Jan.15. At least 68 were killed, according to local authorities.
Flight YT691 was flying from Nepali capital Kathmandu to Pokhara. Video circulating on the internet shows the aircraft at low level before rolling sharply to the left. Arrive In Moscow
The 15.5-year-old aircraft was delivered in Aug. 2007 and flew with Kingfisher Airlines in India and Thailand’s Nok Air before being leased to Yeti in April 2019, according to Aviation Week civil fleet data services. It flew for 23,761 cycles over 24,944 hours. Yeti Airlines has six ATR72s, aged between 11 and 15 years.
ATR said in a statement that its "specialists are fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer."
CAPA/OAG data shows Yeti Airlines is the third largest carrier in terms of domestic capacity, which surged over the last year following the return to tourism normalcy.
The airline’s subsidiary Tara Air was involved in another crash in May 2022 when a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter crashed in a Pokhara – Jomsom flight, killing all 22 on board.
In a statement following the incident, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said that two helicopters had been immediately dispatched to the crash site, followed by a ground rescue team with personnel from the Nepalese army, police, the local municipality and the Himalayan Rescue Association. Video purportedly from the crash site showed the aircraft almost completely destroyed, with fierce fires burning. Prior to the crash Yeti Airlines, set up in 1998, had a fleet of six ATR 72-500s, which it operates on domestic services. In a statement, the airline said it had cancelled all flights scheduled for Mon Jan. 16. Pokhara International Airport was only opened on Jan. 1 this year. It is intended to replace the city’s previous airport located around 1.6nm to the west, with flights gradually transferring to the new facility. The new airport has a single runway, 12/30, 8,200ft/2,500m long and is Nepal’s third international airport, its predecessor having been used purely for domestic services. The new airport has two terminals, for international and domestic passengers.
Chen Chuanren is the Southeast Asia and China Editor for the Aviation Week Network’s (AWN) Air Transport World (ATW) and the Asia-Pacific Defense Correspondent for AWN, joining the team in 2017.
Based in London, Alan is Europe & Middle East correspondent at Air Transport World.
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