The co-pilot in an ill-fated flight which killed at least 69 people when it crashed into a gorge in Nepal on Sunday died 16 years after her pilot husband perished in a flight with the same carrier.
Anju Khatiwada was the co-pilot of the Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu to the resort town of Pokhara which crashed on Sunday (local time), killing at least 69 of the 72 people onboard.
The plane had been attempting to land in a newly-opened airport in the foothills of the Himalayas when it crashed into a 300m-deep gorge.
It was not immediately clear what caused the accident, Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority said. (Source: 1News)
The 44-year-old joined Yeti Airlines as a pilot in 2010, four years after her husband Dipak Pokhrel was killed when the plane he was flying for the airline went down in Jumla District, Reuters reports.
"She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death," a spokesperson for Yeti Airlines said in a statement.
Khatiwada had more than 6400 hours of flying experience, the spokesperson said.
The flight data and voice recordings of the flight was retrieved from the wreckage on Monday (local time).
It's unknown at this stage what caused the crash.
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