Why did the plane crash in Nepal? – NBC Miami (51)

bangkok – Yeti Airlines Flight 691 crashed Sunday before landing in the Nepali resort of Pokharathe gateway to the popular Himalayan trekking region, after a 27-minute drive from Kathmandu.

At least 69 of the 72 people on board have been confirmed dead.

Nepal can be a difficult place to fly, pilots say, but the weather was fine at the time of the accident, with little wind, clear skies and temperatures well above freezing.

She carried 72 people on board

So what could have caused the twin-strut ATR 72 to crash?

Dramatic mobile phone video captured from the ground shows the final seconds before the plane touched down a mile from the newly opened Pokhara International Airport.

The nose of the plane raised significantly before the left wing suddenly dropped and the plane disappeared from view in the video, indicating a possible stop, explained Amit Singh, an experienced pilot and founder of Safety Matters, an Indian organisation. safety issues).

“If you look at the plane’s trajectory, the nose of the plane will go up, and the nose of the plane will be associated with a reduction in speed,” he told the Associated Press.

“When they have airflow, one wing usually drops down and the wings basically create lift. So with less airflow, the lift generated is not enough to keep the plane in flight, the wings droop and the plane descends.”

Professor Ron Bartsch, an aviation safety expert and founder of Australian company Avlaw Aviation Consulting, told Sydney’s Channel 9 that he also believes the plane has stalled. He added that its proximity to the ground may have led the pilots to believe that its speed was higher than it actually was.

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“I would like to point out that the plane stopped,” he said, after looking at the video recorded just before the accident. “Probably pilot error.”

Yeti Airlines spokesman Pemba Sherpa said the cause of the crash was being investigated.

Introduced in the late 1980s, the ATR-72 was made by a joint French and Italian company, and although it has been involved in several fatal accidents over the years—some due to icing problems—generally it has a “very track record,” Bartsch said.

The crew recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the crash site on Monday, but it won’t be until they have been carefully analyzed that investigators know what happened for sure.

The plane crash was recorded on Sunday in Nepal when a plane with 72 people on board crashed and at least 68 were killed, the deadliest accident in the region in the past 10 years.

“One of the elements that researchers will look at will be human factors to see if there has been adequate training,” Bartsch added. But planes usually do not fall from the sky, especially modern planes ».

Some type of technical glitch in the aircraft’s instruments may have given pilots incorrect data, Singh said, but even then recovery from the stall problem is possible.

“Pilots must be trained to deal with technical faults,” he added.

Singh stressed that the Nepalese aviation sector had a poor record in safety and training despite the “challenging airports and conditions”. He stressed that despite its improvement, its aircraft are prohibited from flying in European airspace.

A pilot who regularly flies an ATR-72-500 from India to Nepal said the terrain of the region, with its mountain peaks and narrow valleys, increases the risk of accidents and sometimes requires pilots to fly relying on their eyesight rather than instruments.

The plane lost altitude and caused this terrifying moment. To learn more from Telemundo, visit https://www.nbc.com/networks/telemundo.

The pilot, who works for a private Indian airline and who asked not to be named because of company policy, called the ATR-72-500 an “unforgiving plane,” even if the pilot was not highly trained and unfamiliar with the terrain and wind speeds of the area.

ATR said on Twitter Sunday that its professionals are “fully committed to supporting both the investigation and clients” and that its “first thoughts are with everyone affected by this matter.”

The company did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

Home to eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, Nepal has a history of plane crashes. According to data from the Safety Matters Foundation, there have been 42 fatal plane crashes in Nepal since 1946.

The country’s “hostile terrain” and “various weather patterns” were the biggest challenges, according to the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority’s 2019 safety report, which also led to a “chain of accidents” involving small aircraft.

According to the report, these accidents occurred at airports with short runways for take-off and landing, and most of them were due to pilot error.

Pokhara, a popular tourist destination that serves as a gateway to the Annapurna mountain range, is located at an altitude of about 2,700 feet.

Before the airport opened two weeks ago, some had expressed concerns that the large number of birds in the area — due to the habitat provided by two rivers and a landfill near the airport — might make it more dangerous.

During the airport’s official opening, the city’s mayor said landfill mitigation work had been completed, according to local press reports, but it was not clear what specific measures had been taken.

Singh said that if the plane was hit by a bird on approach for landing, it could cause the pilots to break their approach and turn again, which could also cause the engine to stall.

“A strong thrust setting can cause a stall,” he explained. “The crew tends to mishandle stall maneuvers…so the question again is how the pilot handled the problem.”