one
According to Reuters on the 15th, Nepal Snowman Airlines spokesman Sudarshan Bartora said that a passenger plane of the company crashed in the Pokhara area of Nepal on the 15th, with 72 people on board, causing at least 64 deaths.
Reuters said that local residents who arrived at the scene minutes after the crash said, "Half of the plane was on the hillside, and the other half fell into the Seti River gorge." ”
The Kathmandu Post earlier reported that a Nepalese Snowman Airlines passenger plane flying from Kathmandu to Pokhara crashed near Pokhara airport with 68 passengers and 4 crew on board. Pictures and videos circulating on social media platforms showed smoke rising from the crash site and rescue teams rushing to the crash site to carry out rescues.
From the information obtained so far, except for the three rescued, the possibility of others surviving is very small, the route between the old and new airports of Pokhara from Kathmandu to Pokhara is notoriously accident-prone route, and many passengers from home and abroad would rather spend a few hours on the road than take this crisis-ridden route, which includes airport planes with aging infrastructure and disrepair.
ATR72 aircraft has a long history of air accidents, causing hundreds of casualties in the past two decades, including: on August 6, 2005, an ATR-72 passenger plane ran out of fuel and killed 16 people; On November 4, 2010, an ATR-72-212 civil airliner crashed unexpectedly, killing all 68 people on board. On February 4, 2015, an ATR-72-600 crashed into a viaduct and crashed into a river, killing 32 people. As an unexpected high-altitude airliner ATR72 aircraft rulers most routes in Nepal, because of its short take-off and landing characteristics, especially suitable for Nepal's mountainous and remote geographical features, Nepal Airlines major operator Yeti Airlines ATR72 aircraft occupy a large part of the market share of South Asian countries, including Nepal.
Nepal's geography is treacherous, with traffic accidents in mountainous areas, with nearly 30 fatal aircraft accidents occurring in Nepal in the past 30 years. It has 8 of the world's 14 tallest mountains, including Mount Everest, because the weather can change suddenly and cause danger, poor infrastructure, perennial lack of maintenance and aging machinery, including this airport where the accident occurred. Most air disasters are related to the natural environment, and the airport suddenly fogs up, resulting in very low visibility. Air traffic control does not know the situation on the runway in time. Similarly, if there is no fog, the pilot can clearly see the specific situation ahead, then they will not take off rashly. It can prevent problems before they occur and avoid frequent accidents.
two
For small countries with frequent accidents in Nepal, especially air accidents are more frequent, frequent is like the New Year, and not coming once a year is always a disadvantage. With China facing India with its back, and being directly "seamlessly docked" by the two major powers, the fate is desperate. Because geographically, Nepal and China are separated by a huge Himalaya, due to the natural geographical barrier, the mainland is historically limited to the influence of Tibetan Buddhism, and the communication with India is much smoother, but because of this, India has not harmed Nepal for so many years.
In the late Qing government, the mainland was weak, giving the famous-stirring stick Britain an opportunity to quickly fill the power gap in Nepal, and when Britain left, the power hated the vacuum, India naturally inherited Nepal's power vacuum, since then Nepal has been deeply controlled by India for decades, its politics, economy, culture, etc. are not left by India's strong control, India directly determines Nepal's import and export, trade, energy and communications and other key national economy and people's livelihood, and even to buy weapons, You have to ask India for consent in advance, and lo and behold, the third brother is a good means.
There is oppression, there is resistance, if a country up to the political military, down to the national economy and people's livelihood, all by external forces, does it mean that the destruction of the country is not far away, Nepal's successive rulers have deeply realized the serious problems in it, taking advantage of the 1962 Sino-Indian War, India's defeat, Nepal began to gradually rebel against India, began to reduce dependence on India, accelerated the development of relations with other countries, and began to consider maintaining equidistance diplomacy between China and India.
The turn of time came to 1975, the Indian authorities made a super event that shocked China and abroad "house arrest of the king of Sikkim and annexation of Sikkim", of course, for Nepal, this big event is the biggest shock in history, the Sikkim issue made Nepal panic, and then Nepal accelerated the process of decoupling from India, after which Nepal and India have big differences on water resources, work permits, the Gurkha autonomy movement, Cambodia and Afghanistan.
The economic base determines the superstructure. Nepal is also deeply aware that without economic diversification, it is impossible to maintain independence, but in the final analysis, Nepal is naturally close to India geographically, so there is a possibility of being led by India's neck. But looking at the worsening situation in Nepal, the hardworking and courageous Nepalese people dared to challenge India's long-term suppression and exploitation, and Nepal's domestic resistance to India also rose one after another, and finally chose to look north to China.
three
In the past, due to various reasons, China ignored Nepal's demands, unwilling to speak more on Nepal's internal affairs, even after the CPN-Mao came to power, there were not enough exchanges with each other, China did not want to interfere too much in other countries' internal affairs, China used to care too much about India's reaction, the Kathmandu Post commentator said: "China is often a bystander, often does nothing", thus making India too unscrupulous in Nepal.
Coinciding with the advent of a new era, China's Belt and Road Initiative not only brings long-term development to the mainland, but also brings new development opportunities to neighboring countries, especially when Nepal looks north, which can help Nepal have a new development opportunity. The rapid expansion of the economic and trade scale between China and Nepal has given Nepal more choices on the road of national development, with the economic and trade scale of China and Nepal reaching US$1.977 billion in 2021, and Nepal's exports to China increasing by 63% year-on-year.
In order to reduce the side effects of dependence on India, the Nepalese government has the latest statement of the new Nepalese government's national strategy, which is that Nepal will try to balance relations with China and India to promote its economic growth. Riding the east wind of the Belt and Road, China has helped Nepal to build or participated in the construction of some important infrastructure, such as the Shangma Xiangdi A hydropower station with a power generation capacity of 2 billion kilowatt hours, which is an important witness of the gradual improvement of bilateral relations, and the next important projects such as hydropower projects in China and Nepal, the Anigugo Highway Project, and the Buddha Airport Project will definitely bring new development opportunities to Nepal. The current economic policy is very clear, both to develop the economy, but also to get rid of the excessive dependence on India economically, and to maintain a balance between China and India is to avoid causing dissatisfaction on the Indian side, Nepal's strategy of looking north has finally taken a solid step.
The most fundamental obstacle to the development of relations between China and Nepal, in the final analysis, is still standing in the middle of Mount Everest, across the Himalayas between the two countries, in a considerable period of time, blocking the possibility of close economic and trade relations between the two countries, with the China-Nepal cross-border railway into the feasibility study stage, once the construction of the Kyrgyzstan railway is completed, the problem of unstable commodity supply that has plagued Nepal for a long time will no longer be a problem, Nepal will fully open a development road to China, and will provide personnel, goods and technology exchanges between China and Nepal. Providing great convenience will certainly enhance Nepal's confidence in economic cooperation with China.
end
Economic and trade cooperation without attaching any political conditions has been warmly welcomed by all sectors of Nepalese society, and strengthening cooperation with China has become the unanimous consensus of all parties in Nepal. China is also willing to work with the new Nepalese government to expand and deepen cooperation in various fields, jointly build the "Belt and Road" with high quality, inject new impetus into the friendly strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries for generations, and create more benefits for the two peoples. China can give India's neighboring countries more choices, balance regional forces, and be part of a world community with a shared future.
Please like, follow @Leisure Lake Yu, you can read the previous article for free, thank you for your support!