Tara Air plane crash: bodies of 14 people found

The bodies of 14 persons who were onboard the missing Tara Air plane have been found at the crash site at Sansure, Thasang rural municipality-2 of Mustang district. The Tara Air plane crashed on Sunday. The District Administration Office Mustang said the security personnel and locals who reached the crash site found 14 bodies at 10.30 am today Monday, May 30.

Administrative Officer at the Office, Devendra Raj Pandey said the identity of the bodies killed in the crash is being established.

The team of army and police personnel and Sherpas who reached the crash site by helicopter and the locals who reached on foot are retrieving the bodies and searching for those missing.

A contingent of about 100 security personnel has reached the crash site which is at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres from the mean sea level.

Administrative Officer Pandey said sending additional security personnel and bringing the bodies back by helicopter is posing a challenge due to the fog cover at the crash site. The plan is to bring the bodies to Kobang via helicopter after search and rescue and the retrieved bodies are identified and a police report about this is prepared. A helicopter each of the Nepal Army, Fishtail Air and Kailash Air had been mobilised for the search, said Chief District Officer, Mustang, Netra Prasad Sharma.

A helicopter returned to Naurikot after transporting a search and rescue team to the incident site when the weather was good, he said, adding that efforts were on to ferry more rescuers and collect the bodies when weather improves.

The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered at the foot of Manapathi Mountain, a four-hour walk from Kowang of Thasang Rural Municipality. Search efforts for the plane throughout Sunday were affected by bad weather conditions.

Yarchagumba pickers and shepherds in the area had heard a big bang probably caused by the plane crash into the mountain.

A team of the Nepal Army from Kathmandu on Sunday reached the incident site along with the required materials for a rescue.

The Twin Otter aircraft of Tara Air with 22 people including three crew members onboard took off at 9:55 am from Pokhara for Jomsom and lost contact with the air control in Jomsom at 10:07 am.

Being affected by bad weather condition, the plane later turned through the Dhaulagiri and Manapathi Mountains towards Pokhara instead of flying to Jomsom, said local people.

The passengers included 12 Nepali people, four Indian and two Germans, according to the Tara Air.