Author’s Note: This is a ‘Xinhua’ article – as I value non-Eurocentric news – so as to avoid (as far as possible) the inherent racism implicit within reporting. The other issue is that China considers itself ‘Communist’ and again – I like to avoid the capitalist bias and mindless praising of US anti-intellectualism! Usually, the ‘Western’ media is concerned about ‘how many’ WHITE people were onboard and ‘how many’ of these have been ‘killed’ or ‘wounded’. This racist bias is hidden behind a thin veneer of ‘mock concern’ for the apparent welfare of the ‘non-Whites’ – faceless people who are used as ‘info-tainment’ or a type of ‘I told you so’ background noise for the mainstream and far-right media coverage (two-cheeks of the same fascist arse – yes – I am British and use proper English). I am asured by my Asian colleagues that Nepal has a terrible safety record when it comes to commercial airline-flying (‘airplanes’ are ‘aeroplanes’ in the UK)! If we have to live with the US ‘blanket-bombing’ every left-wing regime (or criticisor of Zionist Israel) back into the Stone Age just to prove a point – then they can at least use the English language the Europeans forced upon us in the correct or intended manner! The most obvious (Western) racism aside for a moment, we have to discuss the destructive nature of Nepalese ‘religiosity’ and the manner in which rapidly expanding capitalist forces in the region have generated the situation where a feudalistic country has purchased (cheap) old and poorly maintained ‘airliners’ with the intention of ‘hauling’ the living bodies of fee-paying Westerners (and others from outside of Europe who should know better) who have been ‘converted’ by the inherently ‘racist’ Bourgeois Buddhism peddled throughout the West (principly by the 14th Dalai Lama and his ilk through the racist Pro-Tibetan lobby – a trend also supported by other equally greedy and politically motivated ‘anti-Asian’ groups) – and risk their lives (and their bank-balances) following a religious myth into an emerging country that possesses hardly any suitable, properly located or correctly constructed airports or ‘safe’ run-ways or landing-strips! Due to the backward nature of the socio-economic (historical) forces at work in Nepal (and throughout the area), the country (and region) lacks the technical infrastructure to support such a tourist industry. What Westerners refer to as ‘luck’ and local Buddhist and Hindhu Nepalese as ‘Karma’ (there are philosophical ‘differences’ which matter little in the context of this tragedy) is relied upon to replace the proper use of engineeering ‘science’ and correct and timely mechanical ‘maintenance’! Passanger-carrying aeroplanes drop out the sky in Nepal not because the Nepalese people are racially inferior (the preferred argument of the Bourgeois media and its Neo-Nazi lackeys) but because no one in Nepal, (that is not enough ‘qualified’ people) possess the engineering skills to ensure the continuation of the proper mechanical functioning of these Western-designed and Western bulit flying machines! This ‘capitalism of the skies’ is a Western-derived habit that has spread all over the world – but not necessarily with all the safety regulations that accompanies the best commercial companies the West has to offer! Capitalism (and its obsession with inverted religiosity) spreading into Nepal killed these people – and not the Nepalese people themselves! Everyone you can see in the video above is a victim of the spread of Western-derived capitalist forces – either directly or indirectly! I only hope that every grown man watching the above video possesses the ‘balls’ to have taken the place of the children that perished! ACW (16.1.2023)
KATHMANDU, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) — A total of 68 bodies had been recovered after a local passenger plane carrying 72 people crashed in the Pokhara region in central Nepal on Sunday, and the effort was continuing to find four others, officials said.
“We have found the dead bodies of 68 people so far,” Jagannath Niroula, spokesperson of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), told Xinhua.
Ajay KC, police chief of the Kaski district where Pokhara is located, told Xinhua earlier that the bodies were found at the crash site in the Seti River gorge which is over 200 meters deep.
Brig. Gen. Krishna Prasad Bhandari, Nepal Army’s spokesperson, said many of the bodies were beyond recognition and 80 percent of the plane had been gutted in fire.
The rescuers were searching for the remaining bodies, he told Xinhua.
Nepali soldiers and police officers are mobilized in the search and rescue effort.
The ill-fated ATR-72 plane from Yeti Airlines took off from Kathmandu for Pokhara at 10:30 local time and it lost contact with the air traffic control at 10:50 local time, the CAAN said in a statement.
According to the agency, there were 68 passengers and four crew members aboard the flight, among them 15 foreigners, including five Indians, four Russians, two Koreans and one each from Australia, Ireland, Argentina and France.
Prem Nath Thakur, general manager of the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu, said the plane had been granted landing clearance before it crashed in the Seti River gorge.
The weather seemed not a factor in the accident, as it was “very good” in Pokhara from early morning, Thakur told a press conference, noting the pilots did not report technical problems either.
Among the passengers aboard the flight, there were three children and three infants, Thakur added.
The Nepali cabinet has declared a national mourning on Monday for the victims and decided to form a five-member committee to probe the cause of the accident, Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Abdul Khan told Xinhua.
The cabinet also directed airline operators to regularly and mandatorily get their planes checked, the minister said.
In May 2022, a passenger plane operated by Tara Air crashed in Nepal’s Mustang district, killing all 22 people aboard.
THE SANGHA KOMMUNE (SSR) 