A plane crash in Nepal on Monday claimed the lives of the 18 people on board. The flight crashed into the side of a hill after taking off from the town of Pokhara. Most of the passengers were Nepali, although there was one Dane aboard the flight as well.
Air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane just minutes after takeoff. It was en route to Kathmandu with 15 passengers and three crew members. The Twin Otter aircraft, a staple in the mountainous landscapes of Nepal, went down on a hill known as Masinelek. The official cause of the crash is bad weather.
This is the third crash in as many years in Nepal, bringing into question the safety of flying there. According to the BBC article linked to above, since 1949, there have been more than 70 aircraft crashes in Nepal, with over 700 people dying in those crashes. For the size of the country, that is a pretty astounding number, but when you factor in the High Himalaya, and the unpredictable weather, it becomes a bit more understandable.
Despite the remote and difficult terrain that this plane went down in, the bodies have already been recovered and returned to Kathmandu. My condolences go out to the friends and family of those who died in this accident.
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