<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">An aircraft with 72 people on board crashed in Nepal on Sunday, Yeti Airlines and a local official said.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">"There are 68 passengers on board and four crew members... Rescue is underway, we don't know right now if there are survivors," the airline's spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said the plane crashed between the old and new Pokhara airports in central Nepal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The wreckage was on fire and rescue workers were trying to put out the blaze, said local official Gurudutta Dhakal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Responders have already reached there and trying to douse the fire. All agencies are now focused on first dousing the fire and rescuing the passengers," Dhakal said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nepal's air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it has been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The European Union has banned all Nepali carriers from its airspace over safety concerns.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Himalayan country also has some of the world's most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Aircraft operators say Nepal lacks infrastructure for accurate weather forecasts, especially in remote areas with challenging mountainous terrain where deadly crashes have taken place in the past.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In May 2022, all 22 people on board a plane operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air -- 16 Nepalis, four Indians and two Germans -- died when it crashed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Air traffic control lost contact with the twin-propeller Twin Otter shortly after it took off from Pokhara and headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Its wreckage was found a day later, strewn across a mountainside at an altitude of around 14,500 feet (4,400 metres).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">About 60 people were involved in the search mission, most of whom trekked uphill for miles to get there.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After that crash authorities tightened regulations, including that planes would only be cleared to fly only if there was favourable weather forecast throughout the route.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandu's notoriously difficult international airport, killing 51 people.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That accident was Nepal's deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Just two months earlier, a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people. AFP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>