21 bodies recovered after plane crashes into Himalayan mountainside in Nepal
The bodies of 21 people aboard a plane that crashed into a Himalayan mountainside in Nepal have been recovered, authorities said Monday.
The Tara Air turboprop Twin Otter crashed Sunday during a 20-minute scheduled flight from Pokhara to Jomsom after losing contact with an airport tower amid cloudy skies while flying in a remote hilly area of river gorges and craggy mountaintops.
Video showed rescuers recovering some of the bodies from the crash site on a mountainside in Nepal’s Mustang district.
Some of the passenger plane’s wreckage was teetering on the edge of one mountain peak as authorities tried to assess the damage and locate the victims, the footage showed.
The aircraft was carrying 19 passengers and 3 crew members when it lost contact with an airport tower just minutes into the flight. Four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalis were aboard, Reuters reported.
Poor weather on Monday hampered the rescue operation, which was being led by the Nepali Army.
“There is very little chance to find survivors,” Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal spokesman Deo Chandra said.
Authorities were searching Monday for the remaining person on the aircraft, Kathmandu airport spokesman Tek Nat Situala said.
The plane’s wreckage was littered across a steep slope at an altitude of roughly 14,500 feet. Nepal authorities have established a five-member panel to determine what caused the deadly crash, Reuters reported.
“There is very think cloud in the area,” Netra Prasad Sharma, a senior bureaucrat in the Mustang district, said.
A relative of the plane’s copilot, Utsav Pokhrel, 25, said he was among the dead.
“I am waiting for my son’s body,” Maniram Pokhrel told Reuters.
The search for the plane was suspended late Sunday amid poor weather and darkness, Nepali authorities said.
With Post wires
