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Anju Khatiwada joined Nepal’s Yeti Airlines in 2010 after her husband, a pilot, had previously done so. Her husband had died in a tragedy sixteen years ago when a tiny passenger jet he was piloting for the domestic airline went down just before landing.
In the Himalayan nation’s deadliest aviation accident in thirty years, Khatiwada, 44, was the co-pilot on a Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that crashed as it approached the city of Pokhara on Sunday. At least 68 people were killed in the catastrophe. Among the 72 passengers on board, no survivors have yet been located.
“Her husband, Dipak Pokhrel, died in 2006 in a crash of a Twin Otter plane of Yeti Airlines in Jumla,” airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told Reuters, referring to Khatiwada. “She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband’s death.”
Anju Khatiwada, a pilot was having more than 6,400 hours of flight experience
Khatiwada, a pilot with more than 6,400 hours of flight experience, had previously flown the well-traveled route from the nation’s capital, Kathmandu, to Pokhara, its second-largest city, according to Bartaula. The body of the flight’s captain, Kamal K.C., who had logged more than 21,900 hours in the air, has been located and identified. Although Kathiwada’s remains have not been located, Bartaula stated that she is presumed dead.
“On Sunday, she was flying the plane with an instructor pilot, which is the standard procedure of the airline,” said a Yeti Airlines official, who knew Khatiwada personally. “She was always ready to take up any duty and had flown to Pokhara earlier,” said the official, who asked not to be named because he isn’t authorized to speak to the media.
Nepal plane crash: The latest update
According to eyewitness testimonies and a video of the crash released on social media, the ATR-72 aircraft that Khatiwada was co-piloting slid from side to side before coming down in a ravine close to the airport in Pokhara and catching fire. On Monday, the airplane’s cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which could aid investigators in figuring out what caused it to crash in clear weather, were found.
