KATHMANDU, Nepal — There are “no survivors” from the Yeti Airlines plane that crashed near Nepal’s new Pokhara Airport on Sunday, authorities said.
Tek Bahadur K.C., chief district officer of Kaski District, said in a phone interview that the authorities were “trying to recover four bodies from the Seti River Gorge,” which he said was nearly 1,000 feet deep.
The four bodies were the last people who had been unaccounted for after officials said Sunday that at least 68 of the 72 people on the plane had died. The flight had departed from the capital, Kathmandu, around 10:30 a.m. local time Sunday bound for Pokhara, a city about 125 miles west of Kathmandu popular with tourists.
Rescuers reached the crash site at the gorge early Monday after halting the rescue mission Sunday evening when night fell. They were also attempting to retrieve the plane’s black box, K.C. said.
The cause of the crash was not clear Monday, which was declared a national day of mourning.
Bodies of Nepali victims who have been identified will be relinquished to families after postmortem examinations are completed, K.C. said. Bodies of foreigners that have been identified will be airlifted to Kathmandu on Monday, he said. According to an airline statement, at least 53 Nepali nationals and 15 foreign nationals were on the flight, including five from India, four from Russia, two from South Korea, one from Argentina, one from Australia, one from France and one from Ireland.
Pietsch reported from Seoul. Kelly Kasulis Cho in Seoul and Leo Sands in London contributed to this report.