Nepalese authorities have discovered the bodies of 17 victims after a plane carrying 22 people crashed into a mountain, the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority announced on May 30.
Rescue teams in Nepal retrieved 17 bodies from the wreckage of the Tara Air passenger plane that went down the previous day.
“17 bodies have been found. Search operations are still ongoing,” said Deo Chandra Lal Karn, spokesperson for the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority, according to AFP.
“The weather is very bad, but we managed to send a team to the site. No other flights can take place.”
Earlier, military officials announced that Nepalese search teams had located the wreckage of the missing aircraft. An image shared by Mr. Silwal on Twitter showed the plane’s debris scattered across the mountainside.
The plane’s debris scattered across the mountainside. (Photo: Twitter).
The Nepalese Ministry of Home Affairs stated that there may be no survivors.
“We suspect that all passengers on the plane have perished. Our preliminary assessment indicates that no one could have survived the crash, but an official statement will be made later,” spokesperson Phadindra Mani Pokhrel stated, according to the Times of India.
The Nepalese army reported that a team of 15 soldiers was dispatched to the site to search for bodies. Another group of Nepalese police also arrived by air.
“Some bodies are unidentifiable. The police are collecting the bodies,” said Inspector Raj Kumar Tamang, head of the police team.
“Rescue teams are on-site searching for debris,” Prem Nath Thakur, Director General of Tribhuvan International Airport in the capital Kathmandu, told CNN. “Once all the passengers are found, their bodies will be sent back to Kathmandu.”
Relatives of passengers on the missing DHC-6 of Tara Air waiting outside Pokhara airport, Nepal, on May 29. (Photo: AFP).
The Tara Air plane, carrying 22 people, took off on the morning of May 29 and lost contact with air traffic control just 12 minutes after takeoff. The aircraft departed from the tourist town of Pokhara, located about 200 km northwest of the capital Kathmandu, heading to the Jomsom area, which is about 80 km northwest of the capital.
Typically, flights between the two cities last only 20-25 minutes.
On board were 19 passengers and 3 crew members, including 13 Nepalese citizens, 4 Indian citizens, and 2 German citizens. The nationalities of the remaining passengers have not been determined. Nepalese authorities believe that bad weather may have caused the accident.
The aviation industry in Nepal has grown significantly in recent years, enabling tourists and cargo to access remote areas where road transportation is limited.
However, Nepal has a poor aviation safety record due to inadequate training and maintenance. The European Union has banned all Nepalese airlines from its airspace over safety concerns.
