Kathmandu: The government has announced a public holiday on Monday (January 16) to mourn the death of those killed in a plane crash in Pokhara on Sunday morning.
An emergency cabinet meeting held today took a decision to this effect, said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Bishnu Prasad Paudel, who is also the spokesperson for the government.
An ATR-72 aircraft of Yeti Airlines, carrying 68 passengers and a crew of four, crashed in Pokhara, Kaski district. So far, rescuers have pulled out 36 bodies from the crash site.
The Yeti Airlines aircraft was en route from Kathmandu to Pokhara when it crashed near the Pokhara International Airport. The ATR 72 aircraft, with the call sign 9N-ANC, crashed at 10:30am. On board were three infants, three children, and 62 adults, including 15 foreigners, among them five Indian nationals.
Issuing a statement, Yeti Airlines said that of the 68 passengers, 53 were Nepali nationals, while 15 were foreigners. The flight had 53 Nepali, five Indian, four Russian, two Korean, one Argentine, one Australian, one Irish, and one French citizen.
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