Nepal air crash highlights: 1 of 5 deceased Indians shot Facebook live aboard, caught incident on camera

Nepal prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the plane was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara in central Nepal, and urged security personnel and the general public to help with the rescue efforts, Associated Press reported. 

Nepal prime minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal called an emergency cabinet meeting following the plane crash, Reuters reported. 

According to Tek Bahadur KC, Chief District Officer of the Kaski district, the plane crashed into the Seti river gorge. Rescue operations are currently being conducted, he was quoted as saying by The Himalayan Times newspaper.

Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as the weather can change suddenly and make for hazardous conditions.

"We expect to recover more bodies," Krishna Bhandari told Reuters. "The plane has broken into pieces."

Nepal's Yeti airlines spokesman said that of the 72 people onboard the plane, 10 were foreign nationals, as per news agency Reuters.

In May 2022, all 22 people on board a plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air -- 16 Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans -- died when it crashed.

In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandu's notoriously difficult international airport, killing 51 people.

That accident was Nepal's deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu.

Just two months earlier, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.

Local television showed thick black smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft.

The wreckage was on fire and rescue workers were trying to put out the blaze, local official Gurudutta Dhakal told AFP.

"Responders have already reached there and trying to douse the fire. All agencies are now focused on first dousing the fire and rescuing the passengers," Gurudutta Dhakal said.

State television reported some bodies had been recovered from the crash site in Nepal, Reuters reported. 

A 72-seater passenger aircraft crashed on the runway at Pokhara International Airport in Nepal, news agency ANI reported. The Yeti Airlines which flew to Pokhara from Kathmandu crashed in Pokhara of Kaski district, Kathmandu Post reported.