A regional passenger plane with 72 people on board crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara in central Nepal on Sunday, killing at least 32, an official said.
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Rescuers scoured the crash site near the Seti River, which is about 1.6 kilometers (nearly a mile) away from Pokhara International Airport, using ropes to pull out bodies from the wreckage, parts of which were hanging over the edge of the gorge. Some bodies, burned beyond recognition, were carried by firefighters to hospitals, where grief-stricken relatives had assembled.
Tek Bahadur K. C., a senior administrative officer in the Kaski district, said he expected rescue workers to find more bodies at the bottom of the gorge.
It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to crash.
The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, operated by Nepal's Yeti Airlines, was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, a 27-minute flight. It was carrying 68 passengers including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement. The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Ireland, Australia, Argentina and France.
