Kathmandu: Grieving for her husband who was killed while flying a small Yeti Airlines' passenger plane in 2006, Anju Khatiwada decided to become a pilot and went to the US for an aviation course. Sixteen years later, in a tragic twist of fate, Anju died in a crash when her aircraft of the same airline fell into a deep gorge near Pokhara's new airport on Sunday, with 72 people on board.
Anju was married to Deepak Pokharel, who used to fly helicopters of the Nepal Army. After a few years of their marriage, Deepak, who became a pilot of Yeti Airlines, died in a Twin-Otter crash in Jumla district in 2006.
After the death of his son-in-law, Anju's father wanted to send her to India to study. But she did not agree. Mourning the sudden death of her husband, she opted instead to go to the US to study to become a pilot. She used the money she received as an insurance claim after her husband's death for the aviation course, according to Sudarsan Bartaula, a spokesperson of Yeti Airlines.
She joined Yeti Airlines in 2010 and became a captain fulfilling her dream. But 16 years after Deepak's death, Anju died when her 9N-ANC ATR-72 aircraft crashed on the bank of the Seti River between the old airport and the new airport in Pokhara. No survivors have been found so far after Sunday's crash.
According to the airlines' sources, Anju, who completed her school at St. Joseph's School in Biratnagar, had flown 6,396 hours in Kathmandu, Bhadrapur, Biratnagar, Dhangadhi and other airports. In 2006, nine persons were killed after the Yeti Airlines plane crashed in a remote mountainous district of Western Nepal. All nine people on board, including six passengers, two pilots and a flight attendant were killed when the Twin-Otter crash in Jumla district. (PTI)
