Nepal plane Crash: Engine Malfunction Led To Yeti Airlines Disaster That Killed 72, Finds Probe

The probe committee said on Monday that the aircraft's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder show that the engine was seriously damaged.

New Delhi: The Yeti Airlines plane's ill-fated crash investigation committee said that the flight's engine was malfunctioning. The major information was revealed nearly three weeks after the ATR-72 flight crashed in Nepal's Pokhara, a tourist destination in Nepal, killing all 72 passengers and crew members. The latest development is that the probe committee said on Monday that the aircraft's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder show that the engine was seriously damaged.

"Flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder of Yeti Airlines ATR-72 aircraft indicates a problem in the engine as the reason behind the crash of the aircraft on 15th January in Pokhara," said Probe Committee.

An official from Yeti Airlines said that a nine-member French team is also trying to learn more about the ATR-72 plane crash from the airline staff and concerned Pokhara authorities.

To look into the crash, the government has set up a five-member probe committee. Following the crash, two mobile videos went viral immediately. The first video showed the plane banking sharply to the left and then falling after a stall. The second video, which appeared online several hours after the incident and showed an Indian passenger named Sonu Jaiswal live streaming from the plane seconds before it crashed, also showed the plane banking sharply to the left.

At the time of the crash, the aircraft carried 53 Nepalese passengers, 15 foreigners, 5 Indians, and four crew members. The five Indians have been identified as Abhisekh Kushwaha, 25, Bishal Sharma, 22, Anil Kumar Rajbhar, 27, Sonu Jaiswal, 35, and Sanjaya Jaiswal. They are all said to be from Uttar Pradesh.

The flight, with 72 passengers on board, smashed into a gorge on its final approach to the newly opened Pokhara International Airport on January 15. All of the 72 people on board were killed. It was the country’s worst air crash in 30 years.

Flight recorders, or black boxes, capture information about a flight such as instrument warnings and audio recordings and help in piecing together events leading up to an incident.