KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — A plane crash has killed at least 68 people, according to Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority. A regional passenger plane with 72 aboard crashed into a gorge while landing at a newly opened airport in the resort town of Pokhara Sunday, in the country’s deadliest airplane accident in three decades.
Scores of rescue workers and onlookers crowded near a steep gorge Sunday afternoon, as rescuers combed the wreckage on the edge of the cliff and in the ravine below.
Local resident Bishnu Tiwari, who rushed to the crash site to help search search for bodies, said the rescue efforts were hampered because of thick smoke and a raging fire that engulfed the aircraft.
“The flames were so hot that we couldn’t go near the wreckage. I heard a man crying for help, but because of the flames and smoke we couldn’t help him,” Tiwari said.
It was not immediately clear what caused the accident.
