Twin Otter Down In Nepal
All 15 passengers and three crew aboard a Nepal Airlines Twin Otter are believed to have died in a crash in the remote western part of the mountainous country. Nepalese officials said villagers near the city of Pokhara reported the turboprop twin went down in snow and fog shortly after an unscheduled fuel stop. The aircraft was on its way from Katmandu to Jumla according to Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal official Ram Hari Sharma. All except one Danish person aboard the aircraft were Nepalese and there was at least one child.
It was the second Twin Otter crash for Nepal Airlines in less than a year. In May, all 21 people aboard that Twin Otter were hurt during a landing accident at a mountain strip in Northern Nepal. In 2012 there were two fatal crashes that killed a total of 34 people on two different airlines. In December of last year the European Union blacklisted all airlines in Nepal for safety concerns. Pokhara (pop. one million) is in roughly the geographical center of Nepal and the elevation within city limits rises 3,000 feet to 5,700 feet from the southern to northern boundaries.