One of the Indian nationals on board crashed Yeti Airlines plane saw Lord Pashupatinath in a dream: Nepalese friend

One of the five Indian nationals on board the crashed Yeti Airlines plane saw Lord Pashupatinath in a dream, which prompted him to visit Nepal to pay obeisance at the famed Hindu temple here, a Nepalese acquaintance said on Monday.

Ajaya Shah, 26, who hails from Nepal's Sarlahi district, near the Indian border, said he befriended the four Indian nationals, while returning to Kathmandu from India after completing his honeymoon trip.

The five Indians on board the Yeti Airlines plane were identified as Abhisekh Kushwaha, 25, Bishal Sharma, 22, Anil Kumar Rajbhar, 27, Sonu Jaiswal, 35, and Sanjaya Jaiswal, officials said.

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Shah said he was gutted to hear the news of the aviation disaster, and noted that he booked the air tickets for the four Indian nationals, arranged Nepalese currency and even dropped them at the airport on Sunday before they embarked on the ill-fated journey on the Yeti Airlines plane.

“My wife and I were in the same vehicle with the four Indian nationals, while returning from Birgunj to Kathmandu. In just two days we became good friends,” Shah recalled.

Jaiswal, a liquor store owner from Uttar Pradesh's Ghazipur district, told Shah that he saw Lord Pashupatinath in a dream, which made him undertake the trip to the famed Hindu temple in Kathmandu.

On reaching Kathmandu, Shah took them to the Pashupatinath Temple, Swayambhunath Stupa and Fun Park at Bhrikuti Mandap.

"Earlier, they planned to visit Kalinchowk, a hill station situated around 100 km west of Kathmandu to witness snowfall," Shah said.

They, however, decided to visit the resort town of Pokhara instead, because they wanted to see the mountains and go paragliding, he recalled.

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“I dropped them at the Kathmandu airport on Sunday morning. I was the last person to see them,” he lamented.

The plane with 72 people, including five Indians, on board crashed into a river gorge while landing at Nepal's newly-opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara.

Officials said 35 bodies out of 68 have been identified so far as Nepal began a national day of mourning on Monday.

Both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder have been recovered as search and rescue teams rappelled down a 300-metre gorge to continue their efforts, which were suspended overnight.

This was one of the deadliest disasters in Nepal's chequered aviation history in over three decades.