Tara Air plane crashes in Nepal, 22 feared dead

The Nepali Army has found the wreckage of a Tara Air plane scattered on a mountainside in Nepal after it went missing over the Himalayan mountains yesterday morning. On board the plane were 4 Indian nationals, 2 Germans, 13 Nepali passengers and 3 Nepali crew members. The army hasn’t yet reported whether they have found any survivors.

The 43 year old turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET aircraft left Pokhara – 200 kilometres west of Kathmandu – at 9:55am local time for a 20 minute flight to the mountain town of Jomsom. The plane lost its signal at 10:07am, 8 minutes before it was scheduled to land.

The Nepali army found the crash site in Kowang village, Mustang district at around 7am this morning and posted an aerial photo of the aircraft parts scattered on a mountainside on Twitter.

“Some of the bodies of the passengers are beyond recognition,” said Nepali police inspector Raj Kumar Tamang, upon inspection of the wreckage.

Yesterday evening, the search for the aircraft was called off due to snowfall in the suspected crash site of Mustang district and was resumed in the early hours of this morning.

In the airline’s 13 year history, Tara Air has seen 3 fatal crashes. In February 2016, a Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter crashed on the same route, from Pokhara to Jomsom, killing all 23 passengers on board.

The Twin Otter has been in service for around 50 years in Nepal, in which time it has been involved in 21 accidents, according to aviationnepal.com.

SOURCE: Times of India