The 9N ANC ATR-72 aircraft of Yeti Airlines took off at 10:33 am from Tribhuwan International Airport TIA to Pokhara.
Senior Captains Kamal KC and Anju Khatiwada, airhostesses Oshin Ale Magar and Sirjana Hongthun were the crew members among the 72 people on board the aircraft.
The plane was scheduled to land at 10:59 am at Pokhara Regional International Airport.
As soon as Pokhara was about to reach the sky, the flight attendant issued an announcement - our plane will land at Pokhara airport shortly. At 10:50 Am., the plane reached the city of Pokhara, but turned poorly.
Then the plane lost contact with the Pokhara Air Traffic Control. Before reaching the airport, the plane was found to have crashed in Seti Gorge.
All 72 passengers including 4 crew members on the plane died. It will take a few more days to reveal the cause of the plane crash, which is the deadliest domestic plane crash. Because the government has formed a five-member investigation committee to find out the cause of the accident that caused great human loss.
However, an experienced pilot of Yeti, who is flying daily on the Kathmandu-Pokhara route, speculated that the ATR plane of Yeti crashed in Pokhara on Sunday due to these three reasons. This estimate also matches the statement of an official of Pokhara International Airport.
"There may have been a problem with the plane's engine," said the pilot to Nepal Khabar, "since the permission to land at the airport had been obtained, the left engine failed while trying to take the final turn and could not be recovered."
An ATR aircraft has two engines. He said that if one of the engines fail, at least a safe landing can be made with the help of the other engine, but the aircraft that has reached low altitude cannot be recovered and it may have suffered the same fate.
Kamal KC is a senior experienced pilot. He knows a lot about this route, besides the weather today was very good, there was no chance of an accident based on visibility,” added the pilot.
At present, ILS system has been installed at the Pokhara International Airport. The aircraft land on two runways namely Runway 20 and Runway 12. Landing should be done on runway when visibility is less than 5 kms.
However, the visibility on Sunday was more than 6 km. Another trainee co-pilot Anju Khatiwada was also given a pilot's certificate after completing the course.
That is why, the plane asked for runway 12 permission. However, the engine may have failed before turning.
'Co-pilot Anju Khatiwada was in the left seat to complete the pilot course, it seems that she was asked for permission to use route 12 during landing,' the pilot told Nepal Khabar about the possible cause of the accident, 'the plane took a left turn after crossing runway 30, but at that time the engine stopped working. It might not have been possible to recover it.
Their experience is that the pilot can land the plane safely at high altitude, but it is very difficult to land at low altitude.
"If there is a problem with the engine after going very low, it cannot be solved, that is what we saw during the scene analysis," the pilot added, "otherwise there was a senior pilot in that plane." He seems to have taken quick action knowing what to do in an emergency, but unfortunately an accident happened.
An official of Pokhara Airport said that the pilot's change of runway was the cause of the accident.
Human error is visible when we look at it with our normal eyes. Everything was normal. No emergency report from captain during landing. In case of weather, it could have been reported that there was some technical error," said the official to Nepal Khabar, "The tower gave 30 runways, from there they asked for 12 runways. By that time, if there was any error, it could have been reported. There was also an option to land at the old airport.
"Even though everything is normal, it is understood that more space is taken while turning, it looks the same when watching the videos," the officer added, "It is said that he lost his balance while overturning." A particularly safe landing is runway 30 (east-west) but normally pilots try to land from both sides. There is also the matter of increasing the rating. Another thing, the pilot has to land from both sides.
While the airport authorities are pointing the fault of the pilot, the pilots have raised the issue of plane malfunction.
However, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal CAAN Spokesperson Jaganath Niraula claimed that there was no 'miscommunication' between the pilot and the ATC.
"Communication was ongoing between the pilot and the ATC until the end," Niraula said.
He said that it is impossible to guess what caused the accident and said that it will be known only after the study.
Built 15 years ago, the ATR vessel was initially operated by India's Kingfisher Company from 2007 to 2012. It was then operated by Thailand's NokAir from 2013 to 2018. Yeti introduced it in Nepal in 2019.
Following the crash of the aircraft within 3 years of its operation in Nepal, discouse about its technical aspects has started to arise.
