"Weather is beautiful. Very good visibility. The runway is clear."
The senior pilot of Yeti Airlines aircraft ATR-72, Kamal KC, was communicating with the air traffic control (ATC) in Kathmandu.
The crew members had taken permission from the ATC to land at Pokhara International Airport.
The aircraft with the Call Sign 9N ANC ATR-72 had flown from Kathmandu to Pokhara under the captainship of KC, on Sunday morning.
Senior pilot Kamal KC was planning to make co-pilot Anju Khatiwada a pilot after giving her final training on this aircraft which was making its third flight to Pokhara.
In his 34-year-long piloting career, KC had joined Yeti Airlines 13 years ago.
He was an experienced pilot. Further, the weather was clear today. This aircraft had already conducted Kathmandu-Pokhara flights twice.
But this time (third flight), the plane could not successfully land at the newly constructed Pokhara International Airport and crashed one and a half kilometers before reaching the destination.
This aircraft which took off at 10:32 am with 72 people including four crew members (KC and Khatiwada) from Tribhuvan International Airport was supposed to land at Pokhara Airport around within half an hour. It was in contact with the tower till 10:50 am.
Few minutes after the aircraft went out of contact, the news became public that it crashed into the Seti River gorge at Nayagaun before reaching the airport.
This is the first time in history the ATR aircraft crashed in Nepal, leaving 72 people including senior pilot KC dead.
KC, who had started his career at Nepal Airlines, had flown planes for more than 25,000 hours.
Flying career
KC started his career as a trainee pilot at a twin-otter aircraft of Nepal Airlines in 1989 after completing a piloting course in America in 1988.
He had been giving training to trainee pilots, of late.
"He was an examiner pilot," a pilot who worked together with KC for 25 years told Nepalkhabar.
Trainee pilot?
Even the flight attendants were confident of pilot Kamal KC. Not only long experience but because of flying for several years, many trainee pilots completed their last course with KC before becoming a pilot.
While completing the pilot course at Pokhara airport, the co-pilot is placed on the left seat while sitting on the right seat.
After the successful completion of flights to all other airports, the flight to Pokhara was made.
Sunday was the last flight for Anju Khatiwada to graduate from co-pilot to pilot.
That's why Kamal KC sat on the right seat and kept the co-pilot on the left while flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara.
"The captain keeps the trainee captain in the left seat and gives him/her the last course, that's what pilot Kamal did on the plane that went to Pokhara today," said one of the pilots, "But, 'bad luck'!" Yeti's ATR plane crashed before reaching the airport.
"Usually on the route of Pokhara, pilots fly planes to the riverside and land as soon as they cross Pokhara city," the pilot said about the plane's route, "but today's plane seems to turn left as soon as it crosses the valley and come back to the east, raising technical questions."
To find out the cause of the accident, we have to look at the ship's black box.
