Nepal plane crash: Driver recalls dropping Tripathi family to the airport two days ago

Four members of a family from Mumbai were among the 22 people on board a small plane that went missing on Sunday in Nepal. The news came as a big shock for 29-year-old Ashish Sawant, who works as a driver for the Tripathi family, who were on board the plane that crashed. Sawant recalled dropping the family members at the Mumbai airport just two days back before he heard the news of the plane crash.

Sawant, who resides at Diva in Thane, said he has been working with the Tripathi family in Mumbai as a driver for the last seven years. Speaking about the ill-fated plane crash, Sawant said that he "lost everything," as his employees went missing. Tears rolled down the driver’s cheeks as he spoke about the Tripathi family, who were among the 22 passengers on board the aircraft that went missing in the mountainous region of Nepal on Sunday morning.

The local police had earlier confirmed that Ashok Kumar Tripathi (54), his wife Vaibhavi (Bandekar) Tripathi, their 22-year-old son Dhanush and 15-year-old daughter Ritika were on board the Nepalese plane that went missing. Speaking about the family, Sawant, who used to drop Vaibhavi Tripathi to her office in Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) in Mumbai, said that he had dropped the family at the airport two days ago. "It was just two days back that I had dropped the family to the Mumbai international airport and today I received this shocking news," he said as quoted by PTI.

Sawant said that he rushed to the Tripathi family’s house in Rustomjee Athena apartment located in Balkum area, to enquire about them after he learnt about the plane crash. He also said that the family had purchased a new car just two months back. The watchman of the building where the family resided, 55-year-old Sunil Chalke said that the family members were very loving and stated that it was “sad that they were a part of this tragedy.”

Nepal plane crash

The Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Nepal's Tara Air took off at 10:15 am from Pokhara on Sunday. According to the airline, the aircraft lost contact with the control tower 15 minutes after take-off. The aircraft, which was scheduled to land at Jomsom Airport in the Western mountainous region lost contact with the tower from the sky above Ghorepani on the Pokhara-Jomsom air route.

Following this, the Nepal government deployed two private helicopters as well as Army choppers as part of a search party to locate the missing aircraft. The Tribhuvan International Airport on Sunday evening said that it traced the potential location of the aircraft at Kowang, Mustang. However, the search operations were called off for the day due to bad weather. The Nepal army resumed the search operations on Monday morning after it was halted on Monday due to snowfall. 

(With PTI inputs)

Image: TATAAIR.COM