Kathmandu (AsiaNews) - A tourist aircraft carrying
21 people crashed this morning in Jomsom (Pokhara, Nepal North). 12
passengers died on impact, including four Indians. The
eight survivors were hospitalized in critical condition. According
to Raj Laxmi, governor of the district of Pokhara, the private company Agri Air
plane crashed into a hill during landing maneuvers at Jomsom. After
impact the plane fell apart, but did not explode, this allowed rescuers to pull
survivors from the rubble.
Jomsom
Airport is one of the most important
hubs for tourism in the Himalayas and is about 200 km north of Kathmandu. The
area is also famous for the religious pilgrimage to the Hindu temple of Muktinath
and the ancient Bon Buddhist monastery.
Aviation
accidents are frequent on the slopes of the Himalayas
due to fog and bad weather. On
26 September 2011, an aircraft used for tours around Mount
Everest has crashed due to fog. 19 people died in the disaster. In
December 2010 a
plane carrying around 22 people, crashed into a mountain shortly after takeoff
from a small airstrip 140
kilometers east of Kathmandu.
The
passengers were mostly Bhutanese citizens on pilgrimage who had chartered a
plane to visit a site sacred Buddhist area. In
November 2010 a
helicopter disintegrated against a rock wall near Mount
Everest, during a rescue mission to save two stranded climbers. Three
months earlier in the Everest region, another plane had crashed because of bad
weather, killing 14 people.
Planes
are one of the principal modes of transport for the people of Nepal. Nepal
has a limited network of roads and many communities in the mountains and hills
are accessible only on foot or by plane. (N.C.)