Pokhara, Nepal: Nepalese rescue teams on Monday retrieved 14 bodies from the wreckage of a passenger plane that went missing along with 22 people in the Himalayas.
A Twin Otter plane operated by Nepalese carrier Tara Air lost contact with air traffic control shortly after it left for popular trekking destination Jomsam, shortly after taking off from Pokhara in western Nepal on Sunday morning.
Helicopters, operated by the military and private firms, spent the entire day on Sunday in remote mountainous terrain, assisted by foot teams, but called off the search at night, as bad weather hit the ground at about 3,800–4,000 meters (12,500–13,000 ft). hindered the recovery operation. ) above sea level.
After the search resumed on Monday, the army shared a picture of aircraft parts and other debris on social media, in which a sheer mountainous area, including a wing with registration number 9N-AET, was clearly visible.
The remaining Nepalis were accompanied by four Indians as well as two Germans. Nothing could be known about the cause of the accident.
The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the plane “crashed” at an altitude of 14,500 feet (4,420 m) in the Sanosware area of Thasang rural municipality in Mustang district.
“Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far, search for the rest is on. The weather is very bad but we were able to get one team to the accident site. No other flight is possible,” said authority spokesperson Dev Chandra Lal Karn.
Pokhara airport spokesperson Dev Raj Subedi said rescue teams narrowed the location by following GPS, mobile and satellite signals.
Pradeep Gauchan, a local official, said the debris was at an altitude of about 3,800-4,000 meters (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.
“It is very difficult to reach there on foot. A team has been landed close to the area by helicopter, but it is cloudy now so flights are not possible,” Gauchan said earlier in the day.
“The helicopters are on standby and waiting for the clouds to clear,” he said.
According to the Aviation Safety Network website, the aircraft was built by De Havilland of Canada and made its first flight in 1979, more than 40 years ago.
Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier serving a number of remote destinations throughout Nepal.
It had suffered its last fatal accident on the same route in 2016 when a plane carrying 23 crashed on a hill in Myagadi district.
Nepal’s air industry has boomed in recent years, moving goods and people between inaccessible areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.
But it has long suffered from poor safety due to inadequate training and maintenance.
The European Union has banned all Nepalese airlines from its airspace for security reasons.
The Himalayan country also has some of the most remote and difficult runways in the world, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, which poses a challenge even for skilled pilots.
The weather can also change rapidly in the mountains, creating dangerous flight conditions.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crashed near the infamous international airport of Katmandu, slammed into a football field and burst into flames.
51 people were killed and 20 miraculously escaped the burning rubble but were seriously injured.
That crash was Nepal’s deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people on board a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed near Kathmandu airport.
Two months ago, a Thai Airways plane crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.