Pilot pulled the wrong levers in crash in Nepal that killed 72 people, investigators find
A plane crash in Nepal that killed dozens of people in January was caused by a pilot pulling the wrong levers while trying to land, the country’s investigators said Thursday.
The pilot changed the angle of the propeller instead of the wing flaps, causing a Yeti Airlines plane to lose momentum and fall, killing all 72 people on board. report A committee formed by the Nepalese government said this.
The ATR-72 plane, a twin-engine propeller plane, was on a half-hour flight from the capital Kathmandu and carrying 68 passengers and four crew members when it crashed on January 15. The pilots attempted to land in Pokhara, a picturesque holiday town in the Himalayas.
As they prepared to land, less than 700 feet above the ground, one of the pilots had called for the wing flaps to be adjusted. The co-pilot accidentally moved the condition levers, which control the propellers and are located next to the flap lever, to a position called “feathered,” investigators said.
Turning off a propeller, which reduces drag, typically happens when an engine is off, the report said, and can be done automatically or manually.
That error allowed air to flow through the propellers, instead of pushing it backward to propel the plane and keep it in the air, the report said. Shortly afterwards one of the pilots reported that there was no power coming from the engine.
The new Pokhara airport was weeks old at the time and the crew had not received airport skills training, the report said. It was also the first attempt by the first pilot to land on that runway, and the third time for the second pilot. The crew was likely distracted, the report said, because the pilots were busy giving instructions instead of concentrating on their tasks.
These factors caused the pilots to misidentify the levers and miss indicators that the propellers were feathered, the researchers concluded, citing factors such as high workload and stress.
The plane then lost thrust, stalled, crashed into the ground and was destroyed by the impact and fire, the report said. Video footage on social media at the time showed the plane engulfed by flames and plumes of black smoke rising from the crash site. Emergency workers tried to retrieve the bodies of victims.
From November 1960 to May 2022, 106 planes crashed in Nepal, resulting in 590 deaths. safety report published this year by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority. Of those planes, 50 were twin-engine planes, which many people in Nepal rely on to reach remote parts of the country.
Mountainous terrain, unpredictable weather conditions, poor visibility and aging fleets are among the dangers of flying there.
In 2022, a plane carrying 22 people crashed during a 20-minute flight operated by Tara Air from Pokhara to Jomsom, a tourist destination popular among hikers. There were no survivors. On the same route in 2016, a crash shortly after takeoff killed all 23 people on board.