A man traveling with 3 friends live-streamed their final moments before their plane crashed in Nepal, leaving 70 dead

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A man traveling with 3 friends live-streamed their final moments before their plane crashed in Nepal, leaving 70 dead
Rescuers inspect the wreckage at the site of a Yeti Airlines plane crash in Pokhara on January 16, 2023.PRAKASH MATHEMA/AFP via Getty Images
  • A passenger on the plane that crashed in Nepal live-streamed the final moments before the disaster.
  • Sonu Jaiswal, 29, filmed himself and his three friends as their flight prepared to land in Pokhara.
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An Indian passenger live-streamed himself and his three friends on a passenger plane just seconds before it crashed in Nepal on Sunday, recording a harrowing glimpse into the fatal aviation disaster.

Sonu Jaiswal, 29, a father of three from Ghazipur, India, was traveling with his friends from Kathmandu to Pokhara when their Yeti Airlines flight crashed in a gorge, The Guardian reported.

They had planned to visit Nepal's temples and go paragliding in the Annapurna mountain range, before taking a train home in the evening, the outlet wrote.

Moments before the crash — Nepal's deadliest in 30 years — Jaiswal was streaming the plane ride on a Facebook live video, per The Guardian.

In the video seen by Insider, Jaiswal recorded the rolling landscape outside the window. The flight appeared to be proceeding normally, with Jaiswal smiling on camera and his three friends laughing and chatting.

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The camera then began to shake violently, and screams and shouts were heard before bright flashes filled the screen. Flames and burning debris appeared on-screen before the footage cut out.

The Guardian spoke to Jaiswal's friend, Vishal Koswal, 21, who confirmed the video's authenticity. He told The Guardian he was meant to travel to Nepal with the group, but missed the trip because a relative died.

Koswal identified Jaiswal's companions in the video as Anil Rajbhar, 28, Vishal Sharma, 23, and Abhishek Singh Kushwaha, 23, saying the four were like "brothers" to him," per The Guardian.

"This all seems like a nightmare, I still cannot believe we have lost all of them," he told The Guardian.

Jaiswal's friends and family said they were watching his video on his Facebook account, and also verified that the footage was streamed from Jaiswal's account, the BBC reported.

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Insider was unable to independently verify the video's authenticity.

A man traveling with 3 friends live-streamed their final moments before their plane crashed in Nepal, leaving 70 dead
Nepalese army along with the police personnel recover the bodies from the wreckage of domestic Yeti Airlines that crashed with 72 people on board dead in Pokhara, Nepal on Monday, January 16, 2023.Saroj Baizu/NurPhoto via Getty Images

None of the 72 people on board are expected to have survived the crash, and 70 bodies have so far been recovered, Nepal's civil aviation authority said on Tuesday.

Another video filmed from the ground appears to show the plane moments before the disaster. The aircraft can be seen flying low before spinning sharply, and a loud boom can be heard shortly after.

Authorities are still investigating what caused the ATR 72 passenger aircraft to crash, and said searchers recovered the plane's black boxes on Tuesday, per Reuters.

The Ghazipur District magistrate's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

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