The last minute decision to swap to Runway 12 seems incongruous with the flight history of the aircraft (9N-ANC) between Kathmandu and the new airport at Pokhara. All previous flights appear to take the straight in approach to Runway 30 (as shown on Flightradar 24).
If the decision to use Runway 12 was for a training exercise why would the crew have notified ATC at the last minute when its only a 25 minute flight. Surely it would have been included in the flight plan.
Flightradar24 also shows that the aircraft had been running around an hour behind schedule that morning on its previous sectors. Assuming it was still behind schedule for YT691 then surely the quickest approach would have been straight in via Runway 30?
The *potential* influence of the old airport and familiar patterns of behaviour related to it may have been subtle, nuanced and partial.