Nepal Plane Crash: All 22 bodies recovered from Mustang district; Black box also retrieved

Two days after a twin-engine aircraft carrying 22 passengers crashed in Nepal's Mustang district, the search and rescue team, on Tuesday, May 31, said that all 22 bodies have been recovered from the crash site. The black box has also been retrieved and is being brought to the base station. 

The passenger plane operated by a private airline in Nepal went missing on Sunday, with 22 people on board, including four Indians. Tara Air 9 NAET twin-engine aircraft, en route to the Jomsom airport lost contact while flying over Pokhara, some 200 km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu. 

The aircraft, which was on a 17-minute scheduled flight, lost contact shortly after take-off at 9:55 am local time. Later, on Sunday evening, the wreckage of the aircraft was located at Kowang in Nepal's Mustang. 

Following adverse weather conditions and loss of daylight, the search and rescue operations were halted on Sunday evening before resuming on Monday morning. The Union Home Ministry had deployed two private helicopters from Mustang and Pokhara for engaging in the operation of the missing aircraft. Additionally, a Nepal Army chopper was also deployed for the search. 

The airline issued the list of passengers, which included four Indians - Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy), and their children Dhanush and Ritika. The family was based in Thane city near Mumbai.

Dana-based tourism entrepreneur Indra Singh Sherchan, who reached the crash site, said that the plane was found in a completely damaged condition. Singh said that there was no fire on the aircraft. The aircraft could have met with an accident after hitting a cliff nearby.

Rescuers on Monday pulled out 14 bodies from the wreckage of the Tara Airlines plane. The Canadian-built plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal.

The wreckage of a plane was found in the country's Mustang district on Monday, the Nepal Army said.

Pieces of the wreckage of the passenger plane that crashed on Sunday morning were found at 14,500ft in Sano Sware Bhir of Thasang in Mustang district in northwestern Nepal, after nearly 20 hours since the plane went missing, the Nepal Army said on Monday.