Plane crash in Nepal kills 69 people including 4 Indian friends travelling for religious reasons
A devastating plane crash that occurred on January 17, 2023 left 69 people dead, including 4 Indian friends who had travelled to Nepal for religious reasons. This was one of the most serious accidents in the area in recent years.
Sonu Jaiswal, one of the passengers, was travelling with three friends when at the last minute they decided to fly to the Nepalese city of Pokhara. Live video footage of the tragedy was broadcast on his Facebook page, showing Sonu smiling at the camera and looking out of the window before the plane engulfed in flames and smoke.
The four friends had been planning the trip for months and had originally planned to travel by car. Ajit Jaiswal, a neighbor and friend of Sonu told the Times of India on Tuesday that Sonu was a very religious person and he had promised to visit the Pashupatinath temple in Kathmandu after his son spent almost a month in intensive care.
“For months Sonu had planned the trip. He was a very religious person,” Jaiswal said.
Zafar Abbas, another mutual friend of the four, told the Times of India that they had planned a surprise birthday party for one of the deceased, Abhishek Kushwaha on the Monday.
“On Monday we had planned to give a surprise party for Abhishek, since he was going to turn 26, although we had never imagined that he would not return from Nepal,” Abbas lamented.
According to the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority, the passengers of the disastrous flight included Nepalis, Indians, Russians, an Irishman, an Australian, an Argentine, two Koreans and one Frenchman.
Nepalese rescue teams continue to search for the bodies of the last passengers missing in the plane crash. So far rescue teams have recovered the bodies of 69 people who were on the plane at the time of the crash.
