Man filmed inside plane minutes before deadly crash, posted video on Facebook
In the hours after Nepal's deadliest plane crash for 30 years, a video went viral in India - it showed one of the victims, Sonu Jaiswal, livestreaming from the plane just seconds before the crash.
He was part of a group of four friends from Ghazipur in India who were visiting Nepal, and were on the flight from Kathmandu to Pokhara.
In the footage, Pokhara airport's surroundings are visible from the doomed plane as it comes into land, those on board unaware they are just moments from death.
The video shows the plane gliding gently over the honeycombs of buildings dotting brown-green fields, before the man filming it turns the camera around and smiles.
He then turns it around again to show other passengers in the aircraft.
Moments pass, then there's a deafening crash.
Within seconds huge flames and smoke fill the screen as the camera keeps recording. What sounds like the screeching of an engine is audible, as well as breaking glass and then screams before the video ends.
Friends and family members of Sonu Jaiswal told reporters that they had watched the video on his Facebook account, confirming its authenticity.
"Sonu did the [livestream] when the plane crashed in a gorge near the Seti River," Mukesh Kashyap, Jaiswal's friend, told reporters.
Local journalist Shashikant Tiwari told the BBC that Kashyap showed him the video on Jaiswal's Facebook profile, which is set to private.
It is not clear how Jaiswal accessed the internet to stream from the plane.
Abhishek Pratap Shah, a former lawmaker in Nepal, told Indian news channel NDTV that rescuers had recovered the phone on which the video was found from the plane's wreckage.
"It [the video clip] was sent by one of my friends, who received it from a police officer. It is a real record," Mr Shah told NDTV.
Officials in Nepal have not confirmed his claim or commented on the footage, which could help crash investigators in their work.
But for the loved ones of the four men - Jaiswal, Abhishek Kushwaha, Anil Rajbhar and Vishal Sharma - none of this matters. They say they are "too shattered" to care.
"The pain is hard to explain," said Chandrabhan Maurya, the brother of Abhishek Kushwaha.
"The government needs to help us as much as they can. We want the bodies of our loved ones to be returned to us."
Authorities in Ghazipur in northern Uttar Pradesh state said they are in touch with the four families and the Indian embassy in Kathmandu to offer any possible help.
"We have also told the families that if they want to travel to Kathmandu, we will make all the arrangements for them," district magistrate Aryaka Akhauri told reporters.
Several villagers remembered the four men as "kind, fun-loving souls". They said they were devastated by the tragedy that had struck their otherwise quiet lives.
Some of them also joined protests, demanding compensation for the families.
Source: BBC
