Irish citizen among passengers involved in Nepal plane crash

Locals watch the wreckage of a passenger plane in Pokhara, Nepal, Sunday, Jan.15, 2023. A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal, the daily newspaper Kathmandu Post reports. The plane was carrying 68 passengers and four crew members. (AP Photo/Yunish Gurung)

An Irish citizen is among the passengers involved in a plane crash in which 68 people have died.

It is not known if the Irish national, who is one of the foreign nationals listed as being on board, is among those who died aboard the Yeti Airlines flight.

A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told the Irish Examiner: "The Department of Foreign Affairs is aware of reports of the involvement of an Irish citizen in an airplane crash in Nepal, and stands ready to provide consular assistance if requested.”

The plane had 68 passengers and four crew on board the 72-seater plane when it crashed at Nepal’s Pokhara Airport.

Rescuers are scouring the crash site near Pokhara International Airport and are expected to find more bodies, according to Tek Bahadur KC, a senior administrative officer in Kaski district.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal said the plane was flying from the capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara and he urged security personnel and the general public to help with the rescue efforts.

Locals watch the wreckage of a passenger plane in Pokhara, Nepal, Sunday, Jan.15, 2023. A passenger plane with 72 people on board has crashed near Pokhara International Airport in Nepal, the daily newspaper Kathmandu Post reports. The plane was carrying 68 passengers and four crew members. (AP Photo/Ashish Puri)

Yeti Airlines spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said there were 15 foreign nationals onboard.

Of these five are from India, four are from Russia, two from South Korea, one each from Argentina, Australia, France, and one from Ireland.

The plane left Kathmandu at about 10.30am local time Sunday and was carrying 68 passengers and four crew members to the airport at Pokhara, which only opened on January 1.

Unfortunately, it crashed as it approached landing, Pokhara, located 200km west of Kathmandu, is the gateway to the Annapurna Circuit, a popular hiking trail in the Himalayas.

Images and videos shared on Twitter showed plumes of smoke billowing from the crash site as rescue workers and crowds of people gathered around the wreckage of the aircraft.

Nepalese soldiers were also involved in the rescue efforts at the crash site.

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.

Nepal has had a patchy air safety record.

Last year, 22 people died when a plane crashed on a mountainside in Nepal.

In 2018, a US-Bangla passenger plane from Bangladesh crashed on landing in Kathmandu, killing 49 of the 71 people on board.

Additional reporting by Associated Press.