Horrifying video reportedly taken inside plane seconds before deadly Nepal crash

Harrowing new footage has captured the panicked final moments inside a plane before it crashed in Nepal. WARNING: Distressing.

WARNING: Distressing footage.

Harrowing new footage appearing to be filmed by a group of passengers from inside the doomed flight that crashed in Nepal has emerged.

At least 68 of the 72 passengers who were on board the ATR-72 turboprop have been confirmed dead after the plane crashed on Sunday, marking the Himalayan country’s worst aircraft tragedy in nearly five years.

It has since been revealed that an Australian was on-board the Yeti Airways aircraft, though it is not yet known whether they are among the dead.

Now a video has emerged appearing to show the final moments before the crash, with four passengers live-streaming on Facebook when the crash occurred.

According to The Times of India, one of the passengers shouts, “mauj kar di”, meaning “it’s real fun” as the video pans over to the window, showing the city of Pokhara below.

Sonu Jaiswal was one of the passengers reportedly livestreaming when the crash took place. Picture: Twitter

The footage appears to show the city of Pokhara below the plane. Picture: Twitter

The four passengers have been named as Sonu Jaiswal, 29, Anil Rajbhar, 28, Vishal Sharma, 23 and Abhishek Singh Kushwaha, 23.

The video pans over to Sonu Jaiswal and briefly shows some of the other passengers on the flight before everything suddenly begins to shake and passengers can be heard screaming.

The footage has not been verified independently by news.com.au, but the Times of India reported it had spoken to Mr Jaiswal’s cousin, Rajat Jaiswal, in the wake of the crash.

“Sonu was on Facebook live after boarding the flight for Pokhara. The live-streaming showed that Sonu and his companions were in a happy mood but all of a sudden flames appeared before the streaming stopped,” he told the publication.

In the footage, the Yeti Airlines logo is visible over Mr Jaiswal’s shoulder, along with what appears to be a Nepalese insurance advert on the seat tray.

The passengers, all from Ghazipur in India, were reportedly among the five Indians who died in the crash.

The publicationreported the four had landed in Kathmandu on January 13 and were headed to the city of Pokhara to do paragliding after performing a puja worship ritual at Pashupatinath Temple.

‘Like a bomb went off’

Another video, which has been shared to social media, shows what is reported to be the Yeti Airlines plane flying low towards what appears to be a residential building before abruptly turning 90 degrees and coming even lower to the ground.

It then disappears from view before the camera is turned towards the ground. Then there is a loud noise, followed by what sounds like screams.

Another video of the plane has been shared to social media. Picture: Twitter

Journalist for the BBC and CNN Wajahat Kazmi shared the footage and said: “Horrifying last moments of an ATR plane crash from Nepal in Pokhara that was bound for Kathmandu.”

The flight crashed into the gorge between Pokhara’s domestic and brand new international airport, which had only just opened on New Year’s Day.

Arun Tamu, 44, who was about 500 metres from where the incident occurred, told the AFP the crash sounded like a “bomb”.

“I was walking when I heard a loud blast like a bomb went off,” he said.

“A few of us rushed to see if we can rescue anybody. I saw at least two women were breathing. The fire was getting very intense and it made it difficult for us to approach closer.”

Flames are seen billowing from the crash site. Picture: Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Rescuers inspect the wreckage at the site of a plane crash in Pokhara. Picture: Prakash Mathema/AFP

Fates of some passengers still unclear

Airline spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP it’s unknown if there are survivors.

“There are 68 passengers on board and four crew members,” he said.

“Rescue is under way; we don’t know right now if there are survivors.”

Hundreds of rescue workers continued to scour the site in the hope of finding someone still alive.

“We are actively working to retrieve and identify the bodies as soon as possible and hand [them] over to their families,” police official AK Chhetri told AFP at the crash site.

A local official had earlier said that “some survivors” had been taken to hospital, but this was not confirmed by the aircraft’s operator Yeti Airlines or other officials.

Yeti spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP that 15 foreigners were on board, including five Indians, four Russians and two South Koreans, with one passenger each from Argentina, Australia, France and Ireland. The rest were Nepalis.

– with Kate Schneider and AFP