Plane crash in Nepal: A passenger video appears to show the horrific final moments of the doomed flight

Mobile phone video taken by a passenger on a Yeti Airlines flight Crashed in Nepal It appears to show the harrowing last moments of the trip.

Sonu Jaiswal, an Indian national, who was traveling with three friends, appeared happy and calm as he directed his phone’s camera from the plane’s window and around the cabin. But after a sudden shake, the camera shot is still not stable. Within seconds, smoke obscures the view and a sense of chaos ensues as people scream and the screen fills with flames. It seems to confirm that there was no indication of a warning before the accident.

Indian police confirmed the identity of the passengers seen in the video, but the authenticity of the full video and everything it shows remained unclear on Monday.

A Yeti Airlines ATR 72-500 turboprop was on a flight from India to Nepal when it suddenly crashed on approach to a newly opened airport in Pokhara. It is believed that all 72 people on board were killed.

Yeti Airlines confirmed that Flight data and cockpit voice recorders – the so-called black boxes – they were found on Monday, the day after the plane crash, which may help establish the cause of the plane crash.

Dhirendra Pratap Singh, an inspector at the Birsar police station in India, the city where the four Indian victims of the crash live, told CBS News Arshad Zargar that he met the families of the four men and confirmed their identities from the video. .

However, it is not yet clear how the video, which Singh said was shot by Jaiswal, reached social media on Monday, where it went viral. There have been reports that it was livestreamed on Facebook, or found on a phone that somehow survived the crash.

Singh could not clarify this part of the story to CBS News, and said he could not say if the video was altered in any way.

In the first part of the video, Jaiswal captured images of the plane making what appeared to be a routine landing, with identifiable buildings and roads in Pokhara below.

A witness who recorded the video of the plane’s descent from the ground said it looked like a normal landing until the plane suddenly turned sharply to the left.

“I saw it, and I was shocked,” Diwas Bohura told the Associated Press. “I thought everything would end here today after I crashed, and I would die too.”

He said the ground shook violently and flames shot out from the scene, not far from where he was standing.

He said, “I was scared when I saw this scene.”