Bodies recovered from wreckage of missing Nepal aircraft

Rescue workers in Nepal have found the corpses of 20 of the 22 persons on board a tiny plane that crashed in a remote northern region, according to an aviation official in Kathmandu on Monday.

“Efforts are being made to convey the remains to Kathmandu,” said Teknath Sitaula, a spokeswoman for Tribhuvan International Airport in the capital.

The Twin Otter aircraft operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air lost touch with air traffic control shortly after taking off from Pokhara in western Nepal on Sunday morning, bound for Jomsom, a renowned trekking destination.

Helicopters operated by the military and private firms scoured the remote mountainous area all day Sunday, aided by teams on foot, but called off the search when night fell, as bad weather hampered the recovery operation at around 3,800-4,000 meters (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.

After the search resumed on Monday, the army shared on social media a photo of aircraft parts and other debris littering a sheer mountainside including a wing with the registration number 9N-AET clearly visible.

Four Indians were on board as well as two Germans, with the remainder Nepalis. There was no word on the cause of the crash.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the plane “met an accident” at 14,500 feet (4,420 meters) in the Sanosware area of Thasang rural municipality in Mustang district.

“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,” authority spokesman Deo Chandra Lal Karn said.

Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev Raj Subedi said the rescuers had followed GPS, mobile and satellite signals to narrow down the location.

Pradeep Gauchan, a local official, said that the wreckage was at a height of around 3,800-4,000 meters (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.

“It is very difficult to reach there by foot. One team has been dropped close to the area by a helicopter but it is cloudy right now so flights have not been possible,” Gauchan said earlier in the day.

“Helicopters are on standby waiting for the clouds to clear,” he said.

According to the Aviation Safety Network website, the aircraft was made by Canada’s de Havilland and made its first flight more than 40 years ago in 1979.

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier that services many remote destinations across Nepal.

It suffered its last fatal accident in 2016 on the same route when a plane with 23 onboard crashed into a mountainside in Myagdi district.

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