Nepal plane crash: All 22 bodies, including of four Indians, recovered; black box retrieved

All the 22 bodies, including of four Indian passengers, have been recovered from the site where Nepal’s Tara Air flight crashed on Sunday. Rescue officers said on Tuesday morning said that they have also retrieved the black box.

The Nepal Army said that the black box of the ill-fated Tara Air plane was being taken to the base station.

The Nepal Army said that search for the last body was resumed on Tuesday, a day after rescuers recovered 21 bodies from the wreckage site of the Tara Air plane that crashed in the mountainous Mustang district on Sunday.

“The last dead body has been recovered. Arranging to bring the remaining 12 dead bodies from the crash site to Kathmandu,” Nepal Army Spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal tweeted.

By Monday night, rescuers had recovered 21 bodies from the crash site, said a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).

The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane went missing on Sunday morning in the mountainous region of Nepal. The Canadian-built plane took off for Jomsom from Pokhara at 9:55 am on Sunday (29 May, 2022) and lost contact with the control tower within 15 minutes after take off. The aircraft is said to have lost contact with the tower above Ghorepani on the Pokhara-Jomsom air route. Usually the flight between Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal, takes 20-25 minutes.

There were four Indians, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew on board the aircraft.

CAAN on Monday said that 10 bodies were brought to Kathmandu, while 11 bodies were taken to the base camp from where the rescue operation is being coordinated.

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The Indians, who died in the Nepal plane crash, were from a same family and were residents of Thane in Maharashtra. They have been identified as Ashok Tripathi (54), his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar Tripathi (51) and their son Dhanush Tripathi (22) and daughter Ritika Tripathi (15).

Also Read: Nepal Army ‘physically’ locates site where Tara Air’s flight with 22, including four Indians, on board crashed

Bad weather caused Tara Air plane crash

According to a preliminary investigation carried out by the CAAN, bad weather was the reason behind the crash of the Tara Air plane.

The plane had conducted its first flight 42 years and two months ago on 21 April, 1979.

The government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry headed by senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to find out the cause of the Tara Air plane crash, officials said.

Preliminary investigation revealed that the aircraft had crashed into the mountains after it swerved to the right, instead of turning to the left due to inclement weather, CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari said during a meeting of the International Committee of Parliament on Monday.

The wreckage of the airplane was found on Monday morning at the Sanusare cliff at Thasang rural municipality-2 of Mustang district.

The plane was first purchased by Air Botswana in 1979. The plane later entered Nepal in 1998 under its new operator Lumbini Airways but was procured by Yeti Airlines in 1999. The plane had been operated by Tara Air since April 2010, My Republica news website reported.

Adverse weather impact is likely to be the primary cause of the accident, experts say.

Meanwhile, former Director General of CAAN Raj Kumar Chhetri said that the age of the plane is not the factor for its accident.

The adverse weather on Sunday could be the reason behind the accident, he opined. However, the reason behind the disastrous accident will be known once the investigation is over, he added.

With inputs from PTI

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