What happened
On 24 February 2016, an aircraft was conducting a visual flight rules (VFR) flight toward Jomsom, Nepal. The flight had originally planned to cruise at 10,500 feet with an estimated flight duration of 20 minutes. During the flight, the crew monitored weather conditions, noting light haze and cloud layers that obscured the terrain.
As the aircraft approached the Ghorepani area, the crew navigated through varying levels of visibility. At approximately 02:15, while maintaining 11,500 feet, the pilot instructed the first officer to descend to 10,000 feet. During this descent, the aircraft reached a speed of 152 knots, triggering an overspeed warning. The crew continued to maneuver the aircraft, attempting to find visual references within the cloud layers.
At 02:17, the aircraft's Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) issued a terrain alert while the aircraft was at 10,200 feet. Despite a subsequent pull-up warning at 10,100 feet, the pilot took control and continued a shallow descent. The flight path became unstable, characterized by significant banking maneuvers, including a right bank angle reaching 130 degrees. The aircraft eventually reached a minimum altitude of 9,850 feet before beginning a shallow climb. Throughout the final minutes of the recorded flight data, the EGPWS pull-up warning remained active as the aircraft performed erratic pitch and bank changes.