Nepal finds nearly all victims of plane crash

The wreckage of the Twin Otter aircraft operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air on a mountainside in Mustang on May 30, 2022. PHOTO: AFP
Family members and relatives of passengers weep outside the airport in Pokhara on May 29, 2022. PHOTO: AFP
Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev Raj Subedi said that they had followed GPS, mobile and satellite signals to the location.

PHOTO: NASPOKESPERSON/TWITTER

KATHMANDU (REUTERS) - Nepal authorities on Monday (May 30) recovered or located the bodies of all but one of 22 people who were on board a plane that crashed into a Himalayan mountainside on Sunday, officials said, and the government has formed a panel to investigate the incident.  

Two Germans, four Indians and 16 Nepalis were on the De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft which crashed 15 minutes after taking off from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu, on Sunday morning.  

“There is very little chance to find survivors,” said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.  

Nepali soldiers and rescue workers had retrieved 20 bodies from the wreckage, strewn across a steep slope at an altitude of around 14,500 feet. They were trying to recover another body they had seen, officials said. 

The government said it had set up a five-member panel to determine the cause of the crash and suggest prevention measures for the future.

The difficult terrain and poor weather had hampered the search parties.

An image published in Nepali media showed uniformed rescue workers moving a body from the wreckage and using ropes to haul it on a stretcher up a steep, grassy ridge.  

“There is very thick cloud in the area,” Netra Prasad Sharma, the most senior bureaucrat in the Mustang district, where the crash took place, he told Reuters by phone.

Nepalese Sherpas of rescue team heading to search for missing Tara Air plane crash, at Kathmandu Airport on May 29, 2022. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

In Kathmandu, relatives of victims waited for the bodies to be brought back from the crash site.  

“I am waiting for my son’s body,” Maniram Pokhrel told Reuters, his voice choking. His son Utsav Pokhrel, 25, was the copilot.  

Operated by privately owned Tara Air, the aircraft crashed in cloudy weather on Sunday morning and the wreckage wasn’t spotted until Monday morning by Nepal’s army.  

The plane was headed to Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site that lies about 80km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara - usually a 20-minute flight.  

But the aircraft lost contact with the Pokhara control tower five minutes before it was due to land, airline officials said.  

The crash site is close to Nepal’s border with China, in region where Mount Dhaulagiri, the world’s seventh highest peak at 8,167 metres (26,795 feet), is located.  

Nepal's army said search teams had located the wreckage of the plane that went missing on May 29. PHOTO: NASPOKESPERSON/TWITTER

Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the aircraft, with registration number 9N-AET, made its first flight 43 years ago.  

Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as weather can change suddenly, making airstrips in the mountains hazardous.  

In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board. 

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