Nepal finds black boxes from deadly plane crash
STORY: The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder from Nepal's worst plane crash in 30 years was discovered on Monday (January 16), officials said.
No survivors from the flight, carrying 72 people, have yet been found.
Most of those aboard were Nepali.
The data on the recorders may help investigators determine what caused the Yeti Airlines ATR 72 aircraft to crash in clear weather on Sunday (January 15) - just before landing in the tourist city of Pokhara.
An official at Kathmandu airport said the recorders will be sent for analysis, based on the recommendation of the manufacturer.
Sapana Khadka watched from her home as the crash unfolded.
"I live in the house just next to the crash site. The plane crashed right across my house on a cliff, one of its wings still lies on the edge of the cliff. It came to the side of my house after bouncing back and then burst into flames. On hearing the sound, we looked out and saw a huge ball of fire in the air and then we rushed out of our house. We thought the plane was going to crash land over our house when my children and I were inside, but we are lucky that God saved us."
Rescuers battled cloudy weather and poor visibility as they scoured a river gorge for passengers who are unaccounted for, more than 24 hours after the crash.
A spokesperson for Pokhara airport told Reuters that minutes before landing, the pilot asked for a change of runway.
There are nine domestic airlines in Nepal, including Yeti Airlines and its unit Tara Air.
Yeti and Tara plane crashes have killed at least 165 people in Nepal since 2000 out of a total of 359, according to data from CAAN.
Another 75 people have died in helicopter crashes this century in Nepal.
Sudden weather changes in the mountainous country can make for hazardous conditions.
And investigations can take months or longer.
Anju Khatiwada, the co-pilot of Sunday's ill-fated aircraft, lost her husband, pilot Dipak Pokhrel in a similar crash in 2006.
Her remains have not been identified but she is feared dead.
An airline spokesman told Reuters that she had paid for her pilot training with the money she got from the insurance after her husband's death.
Nepal has declared a day of national mourning on Monday and set up a panel to investigate the disaster and suggest measures to avoid such incidents in future.
