Anju Khatiwada was the co-pilot of the Yeti Airlines plane that crashed at Nepal’s Pokhara airport on Sunday. A total of 72 people including crew members were on board this plane. So far, the bodies of 69 people have been found.
Anju’s story is different from the others on board as it is the ‘second tragedy’ of its kind for her family.
About 16 years ago, Anju’s husband Deepak Pokharal also died in a plane crash. It was also a Yeti Airlines plane. That plane also crashed a few minutes before landing and no one on board survived the accident. In the accident that also happened on Sunday, the plane crashed just before landing.
Anju was 28 years old at the time of Deepak’s death. At that time he had many ways to advance in life. Anju wanted to join the aviation industry in memory of her husband Deepak. A Yeti Airlines official said, ‘She wanted to become a pilot, she also fulfilled this dream.’
A Yeti Airlines spokesperson says, ‘Anju took the aviation course with the insurance money received after her husband’s death.’ He joined Yeti Airlines in 2010. It was the same airline company where Anju’s husband Deepak also worked.
Deepak was an experienced pilot. According to news agency PTI, he used to fly Nepal Army helicopters. A few years after his marriage to Anju, he joined Yeti Airlines.
Officials associated with Yeti Airlines say that Deepak died in a plane crash in 2006. He explains that ‘the plane crash in which Deepak’s husband died took place in Jumla district of Nepal.’ Nine people including two pilots were on board this small plane of Yeti Airlines and all were killed. This accident happened just before the landing of the plane.
Yeti Airlines officers and employees remember Anju as a capable pilot.
“She was ready to take any responsibility,”
an airline official told Reuters.
According to the airlines, he had more than 21,000 hours of flight experience. His body has been found and identified
A video posted on social media shows a plane flying low over a densely populated area before suddenly plummeting. A five-member commission has been constituted to investigate the accident. This commission will inform about the causes of the plane crash.
Nepal’s Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal in a cabinet meeting directed making a technical inspection of all aircraft in the country mandatory. The responsibility of monitoring it has been given to the Civil Aviation Authority.
According to the authorities of Nepal, the black box of the plane that crashed on Sunday has been found.
Budhi Sagar Lamichhane, Member Secretary of the Inquiry Committee
“The black box shows the condition of the plane before the accident,” he said.
The black box will know whether the cause of the accident was due to external factors or internal reasons.’ Lamechane says the plane’s black box will contain both a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder, so it will be crucial to the investigation.
The inquiry commission will submit its report within 45 days. Since the year 2000, around 350 people have died in accidents involving airplanes and helicopters in Nepal. Eight of the highest mountain peaks in the world are in Nepal.
