Anju Khatiwada paid for flying lessons with an insurance payout from her husband’s death
The husband of the co-pilot in the Nepal plane disaster, feared to have claimed the lives of everyone on board, was also reportedly a pilot who died in a plane crash.
On Sunday, a Yeti Airlines flight carrying 68 passengers and four flight crew from Kathmandu to the town of Pokhara plunged into a gorge shortly before it was due to land at Pokhara’s new international airport. The flight was just 27-minutes long and became the Himalayan nation’s deadliest plane accident in three decades.
Anju Khatiwada, 44, followed in the footsteps of her late husband, Dipak Pokhrel, by joining Nepal’s Yeti Airlines in 2010, according to a report by Reuters.
Dipak died in a plane crash 17 years ago.
The fateful Yeti Airlines – ATR-72 co-pilot Anju Khatiwada was seconds away from becoming a captain. As it happened, she shared the similar fate as her husband who had also died in a plane crash of Yeti Airlines itself. #NewsMo #NepalPlaneCrash #Pilots pic.twitter.com/60NsXr2wI6
— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) January 16, 2023
In 2006, Dipak was killed when a small passenger plane he was flying for the domestic carrier went down minutes before landing.
Read also: Video shows terrifying final moments of Nepal plane crash
Anju, reports suggest, paid for her flying lessons with the insurance payout she received following his death.
At least 68 people have been killed in Sunday’s crash, but officials fear all 72 people on board the flight have died in Nepal’s worst aviation disaster since 1992.
Yeit airlines spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told Reuters: “Her (Anju) husband, Dipak Pokhrel, died in 2006 in a crash of a Twin Otter plane of Yeti Airlines in Jumla.
“She got her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband’s death.”
Anju had previously flown the popular tourist route from Kathmandu to the country’s second-largest city, Pokhara, and had more than 6,400 hours of flying experience.
The body of the captain of the flight, Kamal K.C., has already been recovered and identified.
Anju’s remains have not yet been identified.
“On Sunday, she was flying the plane with an instructor pilot, which is the standard procedure of the airline,” a Yeti Airlines official said, according to a report by MailOnline.
“She was always ready to take up any duty and had flown to Pokhara earlier,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from the aircraft were recovered on Monday as investigators work to determine what caused the crash.
Nepal began a national day of mourning Monday.
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