Air Accident / Incident thread

Latest update: 40 bodies recovered so far. Some sources say approx 15 foreign passengers were onboard, including one Irish.

64 bodies recovered. It is very unlikely there are any survivors, I'm afraid.

First reports said "shortly after take off". It was, however 20-ish minutes flight, hence misunderstanding, I'd say.

Anyway, 64 bodies recovered so far.

Edit: looks like that was 9N-ANC:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/flights/yt691#2edb480c

Which was most likely a stall. Numerous comments on other sites have pointed to the apparently high angle of attack. The airport is only open two weeks and directly on line with the old one.

Furthermore the video distinctly shows the nose being pitched up a fraction of a second before the stall and consequent roll. No big questions as to how it crashed, the question is why did it get into this situation.

Old airport has runway running across a valley of steep mountains and requires a banking departure/approach. I flew out of the old airport, and the moment the aircraft becomes airborne a left bank commences. My purple line above demonstrates curving approach from north/departure from south. The brand new airport has runway in centre of valley and in an axis with it. I put in a red X above where the aircraft crashed into the ravine, which incidentally is a tourist attraction.

It has been said on forums that the Captain had 25 years experience and was teaching the newbie first officer with only 100 hours experience. That latter had been widowed 15 years previously when her husband, also a pilot, was killed in an air crash in Nepal. It has been speculated they erroneously (out of habit?) making the familiar & trickier approach to the old airport, going against ATC instructions to approach the new airport runway from opposite direction than they ended up in,

This is a clip from a video I took taking off in an ATR72 from old Pokhara, running lying across and near end of valley. The purple approximates the turn of the aircraft which commenced very shortly after rotation. The red arrow marks the ravine where the Yeti ATR72 crashed. A relatively short distance to the right of the red arrow is where the new airport runway is located, approx perpendicular to the old one and in line with the valley.

Close call at Kennedy the other night.

https://avherald.com/h?article=503c9620&opt=0

From the video screenshots and observations of those on PPRUNE I deduce this is the approx path the aircraft was taking, the orange X marking the spot where it crashed into the ravine. It didn’t seem off course for this approach. One has to remember a curvaceous approach is necessary owing to the rings of mountains around this basin. This approach path would therefore probably be the correct one to take to the intended runway, but the aircraft became too low and too slow over Pokhara and stalled.

Why it became slow and low is the is the question. I’m hazarding a guess here, but they were not familiar with brand new approach, which I think is a visual one sided by VOR. I suspect it may have been a case of both sets of eyes watching approach runway and failing to observe airspeed and altitude. But the aircraft has good audio warning systems, a distinctive alarm when approaching stall speed, and “too low pull up” warnings. I’m wondering did the “too low, pull up” start sounding, followed by pull-up manoeuvre which induced the high aoa. The stall alarm would have started sounding in short order, simultaneously then with “too low, pull up” resounding. All whilst they were busy trying to visually keep runway in sight and avoid the mountainous terrain. A crm issue, most certainly.

I genuinely can't believe what I just heard on the radio news. A quick segment on the crash and they named the Irish person that died. They then cut to a sound bite of someone from the Air Corps and he said... and I sh!t you not...

"I thought it was weather related but I believe that's not the case now, I believe this happened very close to the airport so the pilots should have been able to see the airport"

My God... there was never any mention of weather and the videos circulating within minutes showed that. Why comment on something you haven't a breeze about.

From latest reports, the Irish person isn’t Irish

Nepal air crash: Indian passenger's video caught plane's last moments https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-64287331

Simon Hrádečky said on his AvHerald that two fake videos allegedly from inside the aircraft were circulating but it seems that one is in fact genuine.

Those last few seconds are unimageable I imagine

I know this is pilot deviation but it seems like a pretty poor layout, also the instructions given to Delta1943 to "cancel takeoff clearance" just doesn't seem like the right language id imagine "Delta 1943 STOP STOP STOP" would be more appropriate in this circumstance its not ambiguous and you know right away what you must do with out any need for thought.

From DOC4444

... to cancel a take-off clearance before aircraft has commenced take-off roll

ATC) HOLD POSITION, CANCEL TAKE-OFF I SAY AGAIN CANCEL TAKE-OFF (reasons);

Aircraft) HOLDING; 

to cancel a take-off clearance before aircraft has commenced take-off roll

ATC) STOP IMMEDIATELY [(repeat aircraft call sign) STOP IMMEDIATELY];

Aircraft) STOPPING; 

Not commenting on the merits, but US ATC is governed by FAA procedure JO 7110.65.

3-9-11 in that doc says: