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The pilot of the flight that crashed in Nepal did not report "any issues" as the plane approached the airport, a spokesman said. Anup Joshi said that "the mountains were clear and the visibility was good", adding that there was a light wind and "there were no problems with the weather". There were 72 passengers and crew on board the Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu to the resort city of Pokhara that crashed on Sunday. It is believed that no one survived. Mobile phone footage showed the plane rolling sharply as it approached the airport. It then hit the ground in the Seti River Gorge, just over a kilometer from the airport.
The pilot requested a change from the assigned runway 3 to runway 1, which was granted by the airport, Joshi said. "We were able to operate from both runways. The plane was cleared to land," the Pokhara airport spokesman said. It was "very unfortunate" that the incident occurred 15 days after the airport opened, Joshi added. The crash is the country's deadliest plane crash in 30 years. Searchers previously said they had given up hope of finding any survivors.
Local official Tek Bahadur said the chances of finding anyone alive were "nil". However, the plane's flight data and voice recorders were found, he said. "So far we have collected 68 bodies. We are looking for four more bodies," said Bahadur, a district chief in Taksi district.Nepal's prime minister declared Monday a day of national mourning and the government set up a panel to investigate the cause of the disaster.
