[Assam] [assam] 15 Die in Nepal Plane Crash

[bhuban.baruah]

New York Times (May 14, 2012)



15 Die in Nepal Plane Crash
By KIRATS

KATMANDU, Nepal — An Agni Air plane carrying Indian and Danish tourists 
crashed into a hill near a mountain airport in Nepal on Monday, killing 
15 people, including the two pilots.
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Nepal/Reuters
Anoreas Rasch, center, of Denmark, was pulled from the Dornier aircraft 
that crashed at Pokhara airport on Monday.

Six people, including the flight attendant and two children, survived, 
said Yogendra Kunwar, an air traffic controller at the Pokhara Airport 
in western Nepal where the plane was diverted after aborting a landing 
at the airport in Jomson, a hub for religious pilgrims and trekkers.

"The survivors are out of danger," Mr. Kunwar said after they were 
airlifted to Pokhara, about 125 miles from Katmandu.

Just before the crash, the captain, Prabhu Sharan Pathak, had told the 
Pokhara airport that the two-engine Dornier plane was experiencing 
technical problems and he did not want to land as scheduled at Jomson 
because it lacked adequate facilities for an emergency landing.

"The pilots were then asked to return to the Pokhara airport where the 
facilities were better for an emergency landing," said Mr. Kunwar.

It was the second Agni Air crash in two years. In August 2010, one of 
its planes crashed in the Everest region, killing 14 people, including 
four Americans.

The Jomson airport, at an elevation of 8,800 feet with a short runway, 
is considered on the world’s most dangerous.