CNN
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A Facebook live video allegedly showing the final horrific moments in the cabin of Yeti Flight 691, which crashed in Nepal on Sunday, has been widely circulated online as search and recovery efforts continue on the ground. It has been.
The plane crashed en route from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu to Pokhara, a tourist gateway to the Himalayas. An airline spokesman said there were 72 people on board, including four crew members.
The crash, from which all but one recovered, remains the country’s worst aviation disaster in more than 30 years.
Local official Anil Shahi said on Tuesday that a search was underway to find the last victim.
The video was allegedly live-streamed from the plane by passenger Sonu Jaiswal, and the footage began just before the plane crashed. Shows the window of an airplane with the wing looking out as the aircraft makes a sharp left bank.
At one point, Jaiswal, seemingly oblivious to the impending danger, turns the video to himself, smiling slightly amidst the chatter and laughter in the background. Several passengers can be heard conversing excitedly in a mixture of Hindi and Punjabi. When an airplane passes by a lake, one says, “Look at that body of water, it’s amazing.”
The cabin is calm and there are no emergency alerts from the pilots or crew. After a few seconds, the video suddenly started shaking and I heard screaming. Before the scene erupts with fire, the camera loses focus, showing only flashes of light and loud noises.
CNN corroborates this video with information from geolocation, flight manifests, and Yeti Airlines’ website.
Jaiswal is listed as a passenger on the flight manifest, and his seat number on the airline’s website matches images taken from inside the plane.
Arman Ansari, Jaiswal’s close friend in India, also confirmed that it was Jaiswal who was in the video.
“We were watching it. We just watched it for a few seconds and it cut. We didn’t think much of it,” he said.
Aaryaka Akoli, the chief of India’s Gazipur district, where Jaiswal lived, said he had spoken to Jaiswal’s parents and confirmed that he was on the plane and filmed the video.
A spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said the video was not from Sunday’s crash. When pressed, he and his team said they had no technical evidence to support the claim. Pointing out as evidence, it may not have been a Yeti Airlines flight.
Aviation analyst Mary Schiabo told CNN it may have captured details not recorded in the plane’s black box, and said the video could help investigate. The aircraft’s flaps, which give extra lift, “do not appear to be fully extended,” she said.
She added that what appeared to be engine sounds suggested that “at least one engine had power.”
Tragic twist involving co-pilot discovered in Nepal plane crash
Search and recovery efforts for the two missing persons continued on Tuesday, Nepalese police said. District Police Chief Ajaya KC said foggy weather had made the search difficult and authorities planned to use drones to locate the missing when the weather improved.
Meanwhile, an investigation into the cause of the crash is underway with the assistance of French investigators who will arrive on the scene by Tuesday. The plane’s black box, which records flight data, will be recovered on Monday and handed over to CAAN, officials said.
Aviation officials said Tuesday that the plane’s pilot asked air traffic controllers to change the runway minutes before the plane crashed.
Black boxes recovered from wreckage of Nepal plane crash
Pokhara airport has two runways, from which pilots can choose when they land and when their request is accepted, said CAAN spokesperson Jagannath Niloula.
“The Yeti Airlines pilot asked the Tower if it could land on the second runway, and the Tower approved it,” he said. “The controller didn’t ask why the pilot wanted to use a different runway than originally planned, because it didn’t technically matter which runway the pilot chose to land on,” he said. Nilowra told CNN.
No distress call was reported by the pilot to the air traffic controller at Pokhara airport, he added.
In Kathmandu and Pokhara, crowds held candlelight rallies for the victims on Monday.
At least 41 of the bodies recovered have been identified, Yeti Airlines said in a statement Monday. Some bodies will be handed over to families in Pokhara, while others, including foreigners, will be airlifted to Kathmandu on Tuesday, police said.
CAAN said 15 foreigners from India, Russia, South Korea, Australia, Ireland, Argentina and France were on board.
Video on Monday showed a grieving family in Pokhara waiting outside a hospital where an autopsy was being conducted. The post-mortem investigation was delayed because a team of forensic experts did not arrive in Pokhara until Monday afternoon, police and airline officials said.
Some families have started talking about losing loved ones. In a statement Tuesday, the family of Australian victim Myron Love said the 29-year-old teacher was an avid cyclist and “lived her life to the fullest”.
