Nepal plane crash: Co-pilot's husband also died in air accident 16 years ago

Rescuers stand by wreckage of a passenger plane that crashed in Pokhara, Nepal. Credit: AP

The co-pilot of a fatal Nepal plane crash had lost her husband who was a pilot of another Yeti Airlines accident 16 years ago.

Anju Khatiwada was the co-pilot of a flight from Kathmandu on Sunday that crashed as it approached the city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people.

The incident is the Himalayan nation's deadliest plane accident in three decades.

Her husband Dipak Pokhrel had also co-piloted a Yeti Airlines flight when he died. His death is what inspired Anju to pursue a career in aviation.

A woman cries as the body of a relative, victim of a plane crash, is brought to a hospital in Pokhara, Nepal. Credit: AP

Mr Pokhrel had been in the cockpit of the plane that had been carrying rice and food to a western town called Jumla, before it crashed and burst into flames in June 2006 - killing all nine people on board.

Using the insurance money from her husband's death, she overcame a number of obstacles to train as a pilot in the US. After qualifying she joined Yeti Airlines.

She is one of just six women employed by the airline as pilots and had logged almost 6,400 hours in the air.

“She was a very good pilot and very experienced,” Yeti Airlines spokesperson Pemba Sherpa said of Kathiwada.

Sherpa said Kathiwada was a “skilled pilot” with a “friendly nature” and had risen to the rank of captain after flying thousands of hours since joining the airline in 2010.

“We have lost our best,” Sherpa said.

A spokesperson for the airline told CNN they are not hopeful that they will find her alive.

The twin-engine ATR 72 aircraft, was carrying 68 passengers including 15 foreign nationals, as well as four crew members, Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.

The foreigners included five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from, Australia, Argentina and France.

A man understood to be an Irish national, travelling on a UK passport was also on board the flight.

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