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A 33-year-old Russian travel blogger who died in the tragic Nepal plane crash Sunday shared her final moments in a chilling selfie posted on her social media account.
In the picture, Elena Banduro was seen seated inside the aircraft which came crashing down near the city of Pokhara just while landing. Banduro was among the 68 others who died in the most deadly crash in the South Asian nation’s history of aviation accidents in 30 years.
“Go to Nepal,” the text on her selfie read, as reported by 7 News.
Earlier, the Russian ambassador to Nepal, Alexei Novikov, confirmed the deaths of four compatriots in the Sunday crash. Banduro’s loved ones were able to identify the young blogger after bodies were recovered from the crash site.
Banduro, a social media manager from Moscow was traveling to Nepal to meet her husband and she recently learned she was pregnant, her sister, Ksenia told Russian media outlet KP RU.
“Everything was fine, she talked about her impressions, about plans for a vacation,” Ksenia said Banduro told her just a day ago. “At 4.59 am Moscow time, she wrote to me: ‘Good morning, in Nepal 7.44am. I go to the airport area, now I have a flight to the city of Pokhara.”
The ATR 72-passenger plane of Yeti Airlines had a total of 72 passengers on board, including four crew members. 15 of the 72 passengers were foreign nationals, including five Indians, four Russians, two South Koreans, and one each from Argentina and France.
The ill-fated aircraft took off from Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu at 10:33 a.m. local time, Teller Report reported, citing the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
A search and rescue operation involving local authorities and residents was underway. Gut-wrenching footage that surfaced online showed the aircraft engulfed in flames and thick plumes of smoke coming from the wreckage. One clip shared on Twitter showed the plane flying at a low altitude over a residential area before lurching to the left and crashing with a loud boom.
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