Tara Air plane crashed in Nepal on Sunday. 21 bodies recovered after the accident.
21 bodies found in Tara Airplane
A total of 22 people, including four Indians, were on board the plane and it crashed minutes after take-off from Pokhara, officials said.
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A total of 22 people were on board including four Indians.
Tara Air’s ‘Turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET’ aircraft went missing in the mountainous region of Nepal on Sunday morning. A total of 22 people, including four Indians, two Germans, and 13 Nepalese nationals, were on board the Canadian-made aircraft. Three Nepali crew members were also on board. This plane was going from Pokhara to the famous tourist town of Jomsom in central Nepal.
Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Bartola said
According to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), rescue workers have recovered 21 bodies from the crash site. One person is still missing, the statement said. The statement said that 10 bodies brought to Kathmandu while 11 bodies taken to the base camp from where relief work is being coordinated. Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Bartola said search and rescue teams were scouring the area in search of one survivor.
President and Prime Minister expressed grief
President Vidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba have condoled the death of the crew members and passengers in the plane crash. The government has constituted a five-member inquiry commission headed by senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to find out the cause of the Tara Airplane crash. Pradeep Adhikari, Director General of CAA, told the meeting of the International Committee of Parliament on Monday that the preliminary investigation revealed that the plane crashed after taking a right turn instead of turning left due to bad weather.
CAAN said in a statement
Earlier in the afternoon, CAAN said in a statement that the plane had crashed at Thalang-2 in Mustang district at an altitude of 14,500 feet. Inda Singh, who arrived in the area to clear a road blocked due to bad weather, found that the plane had crashed, MyRepublic newspaper reported. He said the plane completely damaged.
The crash happened after hitting a rock
Singh said that there was no fire in the plane. The plane probably crashed after hitting a rock. According to CAAN, search and rescue teams of the Nepal Army, Air Dynasty, Kailash Helicopter, Fishtail Air Helicopter, and other rescue personnel deployed at the accident site. Fishtail Air’s 9N-AJR helicopter was the first to reach the crash site and confirmed the crash at 8.10 am on Monday.
According to the list of passengers released by the airline, the Indians present in the aircraft identified as Ashok Kumar Tripathi, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathi), and children – Dhanush Tripathi and Ritika Tripathi. This family is from the Thane district of Maharashtra. The families of Indian passengers who were victims of the accident are waiting for the identification of the bodies in Kathmandu. Nepal’s military said on Monday that its wreckage found about 20 hours after the plane went missing.
Contact lost 12 minutes after the flight
Earlier, Army spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal tweeted, “Soldiers and rescue workers have located the crash site. The detailed information related to this will be shared soon.” Sharing a picture, he wrote, “The accident site is in Sanosware, Thalang-2 of Mustang district.” According to the Civil Aviation Authority, ‘Tara Air’ aircraft took off from Pokhara. The flight took off at 9.55 am on Sunday morning, but lost contact with the control tower after about 12 minutes at 10.07 am.
Tara Air spokesperson Bertola told
The bodies scattered within a radius of 100 meters from the main accident site. Bertola said that the plane shattered due to hitting the mountain. He said, “The collision so severe that the bodies were scattered here and there.” In the picture released on social media, only the rear part of the aircraft and a ‘wing’ (Dana) is visible. The search operation was called off on Sunday due to bad weather and low light.
US-Bangla Airplane crashes at Tribhuvan International Airport in 2018
Eight out of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including Everest, are in Nepal. There have been many cases of plane accidents here even before. It is worth noting that in 2016, another aircraft of ‘Tara Air’ had crashed on the same route after taking off. At the same time, in March 2018, a US-Bangla Air plane crashed at Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 51 people on board. In September 2012, a Sita Air Airlines plane crashed while making an emergency landing at Tribhuvan International Airport. 19 people died in the accident.
