Pieces of the wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed on Sunday were found at 14,500 feet in Sano Sware Bhir of Thasang in Mustang district in northwestern Nepal, after about 20 hours since the plane went missing
Nepal Army shares the plane crash site at Sanosware, Thasang-2, Mustang. ANI
Rescue teams in Nepal have pulled out 14 of the 22 bodies from the wreckage of a Tara Air’s plane that crashed on Sunday morning in Kowang village of the Mustang district. Four Indians were also on board the ill-fated aircraft.
News agency AFP quoted spokesman saying, “Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far, search continues for the remaining. The weather is very bad but we were able to take a team to the crash site. No other flight has been possible.”
The search operation for the missing Tara Air’s 9 NAET twin-engine aircraft resumed on Monday morning. The Nepal Army along with search and rescue operation troops physically located the site of the Nepalese private plane crash at Sanosware, Thasang-2, Mustang.
Pieces of the wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed on Sunday were found at 14,500 feet in Sano Sware Bhir of Thasang in Mustang district in northwestern Nepal, after about 20 hours since the plane went missing, the Nepal Army said.
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A team of 15 Nepali Army soldiers has been dropped near the crash site to retrieve the bodies, news agency ANI quoted Nepal Army spokesperson as saying.
“The crash site lies at an elevation of about 14,500 feet while the team has been dropped at 11,000 meters height,” the spokesperson added.
“We suspected all the passengers on board the aircraft have lost their lives. Our preliminary assessment shows that no one could have survived the plane crash, but official statement is due,” Phadindra Mani Pokhrel, Spokesperson, Nepal’s Home Ministry was quoted as saying by ANI.
The search operation was halted on Sunday morning due to snowfall. Meanwhile, helicopters have now been deployed for search and rescue operation in Mustang district.
The Canadian-built aircraft took off for Jomsom from Pokhara at 9:55 am on Sunday (29 May, 2022) and merely within 15 minutes after take off, it lost contact with the control tower. The flight between Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal, usually takes 20-25 minutes.
The Indians, who were on board the Tara Air craft that crashed, were from the same family and were residents of Thane in Maharashtra. They have been identified as Ashok Kumar Tripathi, his wife Vaibhavi Tripathi and their two children – Dhanush Tripathi, Ritika Tripathi. Among the other other passengers were two Germans and 13 Nepalese.
Of the total 22 people on board the Tara Air flight, 19 were passengers and three crew members. Two German nationals, four Indians and 13 Nepali citizens were among the those on the flight.
Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesperson of Tara Air, told a local newspaper that as the bodies have been scattered over a 100-metre radius from the main impact point, the search and rescue team is collecting them. “The plane slammed into the mountain breaking into pieces. The impact has blown the bodies all over the hill,” he said.
With inputs from agencies
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