BANGKOK, JANUARY 16

The ATR-72 was introduced in the late 1980s as a French and Italian joint venture and even though it has been involved in several deadly accidents over the years, several due to icing issues, it generally has a "very good track record," Professor Ron Bartsch, an aviation safety expert and founder of Australia's Avlaw Aviation Consulting, told Sydney's Channel 9.

Searchers recovered the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder on Monday from the scene of the crash, but it will not be until they are analysed carefully that investigators know for sure what happened.

"Human factors will be an element that the investigators will have a look at to see whether or not there's been proper training," Bartsch said. "But normally aircraft don't just fall out of the sky, particularly modern aircraft."

It is possible that some sort of technical failure with the aircraft's instruments gave bad data to the pilots, but even then it is possible to recover from a stall, said Amit Singh, an experienced pilot and founder of India's Safety Matters Foundation.

"The pilots should be trained to handle technical failures," he said.

Singh noted that Nepal's aviation industry has a poor track record for safety and training despite its "challenging airports and conditions." Even though it has been improving, he noted its planes are banned from flying into European airspace.

A pilot who routinely flies an ATR-72-500 plane from India to Nepal said the region's topography, with its mountain peaks and narrow valleys, raises the risk of accidents and sometimes requires pilots to fly by sight rather than relying on instruments.

The pilot, who works for a private Indian airline and didn't want to be identified due to company policy, called ATR-72-500 an "unforgiving aircraft" if the pilot isn't highly skilled and familiar with the region's terrain and wind speed.

ATR said on Sunday on Twitter that its specialists were "fully engaged to support both the investigation and the customer" and that its "first thoughts are with all the individuals affected by this."

The company did not immediately respond to requests for further comment.

CONCERNS ABOUT THE NEW AIRPORT

The airport in Pokhara, a popular tourist destination as the gateway to the Annapurna mountain range, sits at an elevation of some 820 metres.

Ahead of the airport's opening two weeks ago, some had expressed concern that the number of birds in the area - due to the habitat provided by two rivers as well as a landfill near the airport - could make it additionally hazardous.

At the airport's official opening, the city's mayor said work to mitigate the effect of the landfill had been completed, according to local media reports, but it was not clear specifically what measures were undertaken. If the aircraft had suffered a bird strike as it was coming in to land, it is possible this would have prompted the pilots to discontinue their approach and go around again, which also could have led to a stall, Singh said.

"A high thrust setting can lead to a stall," he said.

"Go-arounds are most often mishandled by crew ... so again the issue is, how did the pilot cope with the failure?"