Nepal plane crash: Co-pilot Anju Khatiwada's husband flew same airline, passed away 16 yrs ago in similar way

By Team Newsable | First Published Jan 16, 2023, 8:12 PM IST

Anju Khatiwada, the co-pilot of the Yeti Airlines flight had lost her husband in a related incident 16 years before this tragic accident. Her husband also worked as a co-pilot for Yeti Airlines by chance. The flight was piloted by senior Captain Kamal KC and Anju served as his co-pilot, as per media reports.

16 years before to this tragic tragedy, co-pilot Anju Khatiwada of the Yeti Airlines aircraft had lost her husband in a similar incident. By chance, her husband was also a co-pilot with Yeti Airlines. Six passengers and four crew members were on board a Yeti Airlines 9 N AEQ aircraft that crashed on June 21, 2006, as it was in way from Nepalganj to Jumla via Surkhet. Six passengers and members of the crew perished in the tragedy.

The flight was piloted by senior Captain Kamal KC and Anju served as his co-pilot, as per media reports.

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"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 media, referring to Khatiwada. "She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death."

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The lesser known fact is that you need to have flown for at least 100 hours before you can become a pilot. Anju had already landed safely at almost all airports in Nepal.

Sher Bath Thakur, a representative of Kathmandu Airport, stated on Monday that the black box of the wrecked plane, which consists of a cockpit voice recorder and a flight voice recorder, can be utilised to determine what caused the incident.

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In the Himalayan nation's deadliest aviation disaster in thirty years, Khatiwada, 44, was the co-pilot on a Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that crashed as it neared 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.

(Photo: @atulkarmarkar | Twitter)

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