KATHMANDU — In 2010, Anju Khatiwada joined Nepal’s Yeti Airlines, following within the footsteps of her husband, a pilot who had died in a crash 4 years earlier when a small passenger airplane he was flying for the home provider went down minutes earlier than touchdown.
On Sunday, Khatiwada, 44, was the co-pilot on a Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that crashed because it approached town of Pokhara, killing at the very least 68 individuals within the Himalayan nation’s deadliest airplane accident in three many years.
No survivors have been discovered thus far amongst the 72 individuals 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 informed 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 greater than 6,400 hours of flying time, Khatiwada had beforehand flown the favored vacationer route from the capital, Kathmandu, to the nation’s second-largest metropolis, Pokhara, Bartaula stated.
The physique of Kamal Ok.C., the captain of the flight, who had greater than 21,900 hours of flight time, has been recovered and recognized.
Kathiwada’s stays haven’t been recognized however she is feared lifeless, Bartaula stated.
“On Sunday, she was flying the plane with an instructor pilot, which is the standard procedure of the airline,” stated an Yeti Airlines official, who knew Khatiwada personally.
“She was always ready to take up any duty and had flown to Pokhara earlier,” stated the official, who requested to not be named as a result of he is not licensed to talk to media.
Reuters was unable to instantly attain any of her relations.
The ATR-72 plane that Khatiwada was co-piloting rolled backward and forward earlier than crashing in a gorge close to Pokhara airport and catching hearth, in keeping with eyewitness accounts and a video of the crash posted on social media.
The cockpit voice recorder and flight knowledge recorder from the plane, which can assist investigators decide what brought about it to crash in clear climate, had been recovered on Monday.
Nearly 350 individuals have died since 2000 in airplane or helicopter crashes in Nepal—residence to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, together with Everest—the place sudden climate adjustments could make for hazardous circumstances. — Reuters
