TBM Staff - Mumbai The Nepal Army has “physically located” the crash site of the plane that went missing with 22 on board, including four Indians, on Sunday. The crash site has been located in Sanosware, Thasang-2 in Mustang district, Army Spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal tweeted today along with the photo of the wreckage with the plane’s tail number clearly visible, reports NDTV.
The fate of 22 people, including four members of an Indian family, remains unclear.
Search and rescue troops have physically located the plane crash site. Details will be followed.
– NASpokesperson (@NaSpokesperson) May 30, 2022
The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane operated by Tara Air had lost contact minutes after it took off from the tourist city of Pokhara around 10 am on Sunday.
The Canadian-built plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal.
“The aircraft was seen over the sky of Jomsom in Mustang and then had diverted to Mt. Dhaulagiri after which it hadn’t come into contact,” Chief District Officer Netra Prasad Sharma confirmed to ANI over the phone.
The airline issued the list of passengers which identified four Indians as Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy) and their children Dhanush and Ritika. The family was based in Thane city near Mumbai.
The elder sister of Vaibhavi Tripathi has requested officials not to inform her mother as her health condition is “critical”, an official said.
The Nepal Home Ministry has deployed two private helicopters from Mustang and Pokhara for the search for missing aircraft. Patrol and search units from security forces, and groups of locals are also on-foot in the Dhaulagiri region, The Himalayan Times newspaper reported.
Mustang (from the Tibetan Muntan meaning “fertile plain”) the traditional region is largely dry and arid. The world’s deepest gorge that goes down three miles vertically between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna mountains runs through this district.
Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record of air accidents.
In 2016, all 23 people aboard were killed when a plane of the same airline flying the same route crashed after take off.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Air crash occurred at the Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 51 people on board. (Source: NDTV)
