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Nepal: rescue workers at a large part of the wreckage of the crashed machine
Photo: Yunish Gurung/AP
Anju Khatiwada was a co-pilot of Yeti Airlines Flight 691, which crashed shortly before landing on Sunday morning on the approximately half-hour flight between the Nepalese capital Kathmandu and Pokhara.
After the crash of the plane with 72 people on board, the authorities in Nepal have lost hope of finding any survivors.
"We are praying for a miracle," an official told the AFP news agency.
But the hope of finding survivors "is nil," an official said Monday.
So far, the rescue workers have found 69 bodies.
According to Yeti Airlines, co-pilot Khatiwada had been with the airline since 2010 – following in her husband's footsteps at the time.
"Her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, died in a Yeti Airlines plane crash in Jumla in 2006," an airline spokesman said.
“She funded her pilot training with the money she got from insurance after her husband died.”
»She was a determined woman«
"She was a determined woman who stood up for her dreams and fulfilled her husband's dreams," a family member told the BBC.
According to the report, Khatiwada Mann was also on board as a co-pilot in the 2006 crash.
The wreck of the crashed machine is near a 300 meter deep gorge, as the coordinator of the rescue work said.
The bodies should be handed over to the relatives after identification.
The black box had been found and investigations into the cause of the accident were ongoing, according to the Nepalese Civil Aviation Authority.
The machine did not send an emergency call.
According to the information, there were 53 passengers from Nepal on board, as well as people from India, Russia, South Korea, Australia, Argentina, France and Ireland.
Pokhara is the starting point for numerous trekking tours in the Himalayas, including to the Annapurna massif.
Plane crashes are common in Nepal.
This has to do with the fact that many of the world's highest mountains are located there, including Mount Everest, and weather conditions can change quickly.
From the EU's point of view, the safety supervision of the Nepalese aviation authorities is not sufficient.
Because of safety concerns, Nepalese airlines are therefore not allowed to fly in EU airspace.
The airline Yeti Airlines, for which the accident machine was in use, is on an EU blacklist due to safety concerns.
Yeti Airlines is Nepal's second largest airline.
It was founded in 1998 by entrepreneur Ang Tshering Sherpa, who died in a helicopter crash in 2019.
The plane that crashed was an ATR 72-500, a short-haul regional airliner.
The twin-engine ATR-72 machines are also in service elsewhere in the world.
According to the company, the Yeti Airlines fleet consisted of six aircraft of this type.
The Franco-Italian company Avions de Transport Régional (ATR), a joint venture between Airbus and Leonardo, said it was supporting the investigation into the crash.
wit/AFP/Reuters/dpa