In the hours following Nepal’s deadliest plane disaster in thirty years, a video of one of the victims, Sonu Jaiswal, livestreaming from the plane just seconds before the crash, went popular in India.

He was traveling to Nepal with a group of four friends from Ghazipur, India, and they were on the aircraft from Kathmandu to Pokhara.

The tragic plane is seen coming into land at Pokhara Airport in the footage, its passengers unknowing they are only minutes away from tragedy.

It’s thought that none of the 72 passengers on board survived the collision.

Before the man filming it turns the camera around and smiles, the footage shows the jet floating gracefully over the honeycomb of buildings dotting brown-green fields.

Then he spins it around once more to reveal other fliers.

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The jet appears to be seen on ground-based video just before it crashes.

The information that follows might be upsetting to some readers.

After a brief pause, there is a loud crash.

The screen is quickly filled with enormous flames and smoke while the camera continues to film. Before the video ends, there is what sounds like an engine screeching, glass smashing, and cries.

Sonu Jaiswal’s friends and relatives confirmed the legitimacy of the video by telling reporters that they had seen it on his Facebook page.

According to Jaiswal’s friend Mukesh Kashyap, “Sonu did the [livestream] when the plane crashed in a valley near the Seti River.”

According to local journalist Shashikant Tiwari, who works for the BBC, Kashyap showed him the footage on Jaiswal’s private Facebook profile.

Image Source: EPA-EFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK, Nepal Plane Crash
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Hundreds of rescuers were dispatched to the collision site.
How Jaiswal used the internet to stream from the plane is unknown.

Former Nepali legislator Abhishek Pratap Shah told the Indian news outlet NDTV that rescuers had extracted the phone from the plane’s wreckage on which the video was discovered.

“One of my friends sent the video clip to me after a police officer gave it to him. This is a true record “said Mr. Shah to NDTV.

Authorities in Nepal have not backed up his assertion or offered any commentary on the video, which could be useful to crash investigators in their work.

The BBC’s Rajini Vaidyanathan provided this quote for the image: “The scent of smoke still hovers in the air here.”

All of this, however, is irrelevant to the four men’s families—Jaiswal, Abhishek Kushwaha, Anil Rajbhar, and Vishal Sharma. They claim to be “too shattered” to give a damn.

Abhishek Kushwaha’s brother Chandrabhan Maurya remarked, “The pain is difficult to convey.

“The government must assist us in whatever way they can. We demand the return of our loved ones’ bodies.”

16 years ago, the co-husband pilot’s also perished in the plane disaster.
The four families and the Indian embassy in Kathmandu have been contacted, according to Ghazipur authorities in northern Uttar Pradesh, to see if they can be of any assistance.

District magistrate Aryaka Akhauri told reporters, “We have also assured the families that if they wish to fly to Kathmandu, we will make all the preparations for them.”

The four men were remembered by several villagers as “gentle, fun-loving souls.” They claimed that the tragedy that had disrupted their normally peaceful lives had left them inconsolable.

Some of them also took part in demonstrations calling for restitution for the families.

households in Ghazipur
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The government has been asked for compensation by the families of the Indian victims.
The four men, who were all estimated to be in their 20s or early 30s, were longtime friends who frequently got together.

Locals claim they traveled to Nepal on January 13 in order to see the Pashupatinath temple, a magnificent shrine outside of Kathmandu that is devoted to the Hindu god Shiva.

Jaiswal, a father of three, reportedly thought up the trip and wanted to visit the temple to pray for a fourth son.

The group traveled to Pokhara, a scenic tourist destination located close to the Annapurna mountain range, on Sunday after visiting the temple to go paragliding. They had intended to go back to Kathmandu.

However, fate had other plans for him, according to an unidentified family of Jaiswal, who spoke to news outlet PTI.

On board were five Indians, including the four men. 53 passengers, including four Russians and two Koreans, were Nepalese, according to the authorities. One passenger each from the UK, Australia, Argentina, and France is said to have been among the additional passengers on board.

On Monday, photographs from the crash site and the video captured by Jaiswal were all over social media in India.

Rajendra Prasad Jaiswal, Jaiswal’s father, claimed he could not stand to view the video himself. “My only information about it comes from Sonu’s friends. Our entire world has crumbled.”

Anil Rajbhar’s father stayed aside as dozens of mourners stood around the neighborhood in shock.

On January 13, his son had left for Nepal without telling anyone back home. According to neighbors, Anil quietly packed his bags and departed with his buddies as his father was working in the family’s fields.

His father is still in shock over the information.

Shashikant Tiwari has more to report from Uttar Pradesh.