Strange Fate: Nepal Plane Crash Co-Pilot Was Married To Pilot Killed In Similar Crash 16 Years Ago

The co-pilot of the Nepalese plane crash that killed at least 68 of the 72 passengers was Anju Khatiwada, who had lost her pilot husband in a similar plane tragedy in 2006.

According to a report by Reuters, Anju Khatiwada, the copilot of the Yeti Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday, was married to a pilot who worked for the same airline and died in another plane tragedy 16 years ago.

Anju Khatiwada's husband was a pilot for a small Nepali airline; when he was killed in an aircraft crash in 2006, she pledged to carry on his legacy.

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She had to raise her kid with the support of her parents while she trained as a pilot in the United States, despite strong opposition from her family. After moving back to Nepal in 2010, she resumed her career in aviation with Yeti Airlines, ultimately becoming a captain after logging thousands of flight hours.

The accident that occurred on Sunday was the deadliest in the country in the last 30 years, with at least 68 people losing their lives.

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The report states that the plane went down close to the Pokhara airport as it was carrying 72 people.

Yeti Airlines spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula told Reuters that Khatiwada's remains had not been identified, even though it is believed that she had sadly died.

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According to Bartaula, Khatiwada is an experienced pilot who has logged more than 6,400 hours in the cockpit.

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In the past, she flew the popular tourist route that connects Kathmandu, the nation's capital, to Pokhara, the country's second-largest city.

The news agency says that the body of the flight's captain, Kamal K.C., has been found and named.

The spokeswoman told Reuters that Dipak Pokhrel, Khatiwada's husband, died in 2006 when a Yeti Airlines passenger plane crashed in Jumla.

"She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death," Bartaula told Reuters.

According to Reuters, Khatiwada started working for the airline in 2010, four years after her husband was killed in an airplane crash soon before landing.

According to a report by Reuters, before the incident that occurred on Sunday, there had already been 273 people killed in plane crashes across the country since 2000.

A representative from the Pokhara airport revealed that minutes before the Sunday crash, the captain of the Yeti Airlines jet asked to switch runways.

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Anup Joshi said that the weather was good enough for a safe landing and that the pilot didn't say anything wrong when he asked to switch from runway 3 to runway 1.

A total of 72 individuals¡ª4 crew members and 68 passengers¡ªwere aboard the twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft that crashed near the airport in the popular tourist destination of Pokhara.

The bodies of 68 people have been found, while the fates of four others are still unknown.

A person who knows the area well has said there is a "zero" chance of finding survivors.

The search for the plane is still going on, but the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been found in the wreckage. An official at the Kathmandu airport told us both boxes were complete and ready to be looked at.

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