iPhone | iPad
Android
Huawei
The polling will take place in a single phase on May 10 and votes will be counted on May 13
KT APPDOWNLOAD
Nepal: Yeti Airlines co-pilot had lost her husband 16 years ago in another plane crash
Anju Khatiwada followed the footsteps of her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, and joined the carrier in 2010
Rescue teams work to retrieve bodies from the wreckage at the crash site of an aircraft carrying 72 people in Pokhara in western Nepal January 15, 2023. Photo: Reuters
In 2010, Anju Khatiwada joined Nepal's Yeti Airlines, following in the footsteps of her husband, a pilot who had died in a crash four years earlier when a small passenger plane he was flying for the domestic carrier went down minutes before landing.
On Sunday, Khatiwada, 44, was the co-pilot on a Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that crashed as it approached the city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people in the Himalayan nation's deadliest plane accident in three decades.
No survivors have been found so far among the 72 people on board.
"Her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, died in 2006 in a crash of a Twin Otter plane of Yeti Airlines in Jumla," airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told Reuters, referring to Khatiwada. "She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death."
A pilot with more than 6,400 hours of flying time, Khatiwada had previously flown the popular tourist route from the capital, Kathmandu, to the country's second-largest city, Pokhara, Bartaula said.
The body of Kamal K.C., the captain of the flight, who had more than 21,900 hours of flight time, has been recovered and identified.
Kathiwada's remains have not been identified but she is feared dead, Bartaula said.
"On Sunday, she was flying the plane with an instructor pilot, which is the standard procedure of the airline," said an Yeti Airlines official, who knew Khatiwada personally.
"She was always ready to take up any duty and had flown to Pokhara earlier," said the official, who asked not to be named because he isn't authorised to speak to media.
Reuters was unable to immediately reach any of her family members. The ATR-72 aircraft that Khatiwada was co-piloting rolled from side to side before crashing in a gorge near Pokhara airport and catching fire, according to eyewitness accounts and a video of the crash posted on the social media.
The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the aircraft, which may help investigators determine what caused it to crash in clear weather, were recovered on Monday.
Nearly 350 people have died since 2000 in plane or helicopter crashes in Nepal - home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest - where sudden weather changes can make for hazardous conditions.
ALSO READ:
More news from World
India's external affairs minister says the group's main focus is on economic and developmental matters concerning 200 countries in the world — not the war in Ukraine that had hijacked its agenda
In bid for energy security amid Russia-Ukraine war, country's second plant to also use American supplier after first made the switch years earlier
Claims, some dating back 30 years, outside a time limit for legal action, says lawyer
The sisters were taken into a neonatal intensive care unit after being delivered, where they remained for a total of 216 days
Moscow's ties with Yerevan have deteriorated in recent months
The 37-year-old is also first ethnic minority leader of a devolved government
British publisher trying to end high court claims brought over alleged unlawful activity at its titles