Remains of Korean crash victims moved to Kathmandu

A rescue team works to recover the body of a victim from the site of the crash of a Yeti Airlines plane in Pokhara, Nepal on Monday. [AP/YONHAP]

Remains of the two Koreans aboard a plane that crashed in Nepal on Sunday have been identified, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The bodies of the two Koreans — a father in his 40s surnamed Yu and his teenaged son — were identified by their personal belongings. The remains were transferred Tuesday to a local hospital in the capital of Kathmandu from Pokhara, where the accident occurred.

The ministry sent an emergency response team to Nepal to handle formalities and help the victim's relatives communicate with the Korean Embassy in Nepal.

“We send our deepest condolences over the deaths in the accident to the victims' families,” said Cho Hyun-dong, first vice foreign minister on Tuesday.

A Yeti Airlines flight with 72 people on board, including four crew members, crashed in Pokhara on Sunday. Seventy bodies had been retrieved as of early Tuesday, according to AFP.

The crash on Sunday was the third deadliest recorded in Nepal, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

Nepal, home to part of the Himalayas and eight of 14 mountains whose peaks are higher than 8,000 meters (26,247 feet), has had at least 16 other flight accidents in the past 10 years due to sudden changes in the weather or difficult-to-approach airstrips in the mountains.
The most recent was last May, when a plane operated by Tara Air flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed, killing all 22 aboard.

Hiking accidents involving Koreans, have also occurred in the Himalayas.

A Korean woman in her 50s was found dead on Mount Annapurna in Nepal the same day as the plane crash, according to a local Korean community association.

Kim Jae-soon was found by a local guide at 1 p.m. on Sunday in the Thorong La Pass, a trekking course at a height of over 5,000 meters.

Kim was trekking alone, according to Kim Young-in, the Korean chief of the Kathmandu branch of the World Federation of Overseas Korean Traders Association (World-OKTA).

The exact cause of her death will be investigated but is thought to be altitude sickness.

In January 2019, four Koreans died on a trekking course on Mount Annapurna after an avalanche struck.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]