Rescue efforts: Rescuers carry out the body of a victim of the Yeti Airlines plane crash in Pokhara, Nepal. , photo credit: Prakash Mathema
At least 69 of the 72 passengers aboard Yeti Airlines Flight 691 died plane crashed in nepal on Sunday. It is the country’s third deadliest aviation disaster in the last three decades. The plane was on its way from the capital Kathmandu to the famous tourist destination Pokhara and crashed near the Pokhara International Airport.
In the last three decades, 52 flights have crashed in Nepal. The country ranks 33rd out of 207 countries ordered by the number of plane crashes between 1990 and 2023. (Chart 1) , With 1,578 plane crashes, the US leads the list, followed by Russia (464) and Canada (369). India ranks 13th with 99 accidents during this period.
Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode
The death toll from airplane crashes in the mountainous country is notoriously high. Including Sunday’s accident, 720 people have lost their lives in such incidents between 1990 and 2023 in Nepal. (Chart 2). Nepal ranks 12th out of 207 countries ordered on the basis of fatalities in the same period. The US leads the list with 5,445 deaths, followed by Russia (2,730) and Indonesia (2,171). India ranks 7th with 1,020 deaths during this period.
The US is ahead by a wide margin in both the number of aircraft accidents and deaths as air traffic in the country is far higher than in other countries. A comparison between air traffic and accident-related deaths is necessary to understand whether deaths in Nepal are proportionately higher than its air traffic.
Click To subscribe to our Data newsletter
chart 3 Shows the number of deaths in air accidents against departures by registered air carriers in a country between 1990 and 2023. For example, registered air carriers in the US recorded 324 million departures during this period, the most of all countries by a wide margin. This was followed by Chinese carriers – 57 million. These figures are plotted in the horizontal axis Chart 3. The further to the right a dot (representing a country), the higher the number of departures. The number of departures by registered air carriers in a country is a good proxy measure for air traffic in the country.
Deaths from aircraft accidents are plotted along the vertical axis of Chart 3. The higher a point is on the chart, the higher the fatality number. Nepal belongs to the group of countries where air traffic is relatively low but deaths are relatively high. Other countries in this group include Nigeria, Pakistan, Angola and Sri Lanka. In the period considered in Nepal, the number of departures stood at 0.9 million, while the death toll stood at 720. In comparison, in Kuwait, there were only three such fatalities in the period considered, while departures were 0.85 million. Among 59 countries, the number of departures was higher than in Nepal, but the death toll was lower. For example, Irish carriers recorded 12 million departures with only 10 deaths.
Yeti Airlines recorded six air accidents in the past three decades that resulted in 99 deaths. Its subsidiary Tara Air also recorded six incidents which resulted in 67 deaths. Together, they account for the largest number of accidents and deaths by any Nepalese carrier. (Chart 4),
While the causes of individual accidents vary, “the majority of aviation accidents in Nepal between 1952–2022 were caused by aircraft flying into mountains hidden by clouds, known as controlled flight into terrain, with 92 % die,” writes Kunda Dixit. Nepali Times , Also, in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program conducted between 2016 and 2018, Nepal scored only 21.6% on the accident investigation parameter, which is much lower than the global average of 54.2%. A poor record in accident investigation suggests that feedback mechanisms are broken, making it difficult to learn from mistakes.
nihalani.j@thehindu.co.in
vignesh.r@thehindu.co.in
Source: Aviation Safety Network (Charts 1,2,3,4); World Bank (Chart 3); ICAO (Chart 5)
Read this also | Watch: Nepal plane crash allegedly shot by UP passenger during Facebook Live