KATHMANDU, Nepal
Nepali rescuers
pulled 14 bodies on Monday from the mangled wreckage of
a passenger plane strewn across a mountainside that went missing in the
Himalayas with 22 people on board.22 people were on board the Nepali carrier Tara Air when it crashed on Sunday [Courtesy]
Air traffic control lost
contact with the Twin Otter aircraft operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air
shortly after taking off from Pokhara in western Nepal on
Sunday morning headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination.
Helicopters operated by the
military and private firms scoured the remote mountainous area all day Sunday,
aided by teams on foot, but called off the search when night fell, as bad
weather hampered the recovery operation at around 3,800-4,000 metres
(12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.
After the search resumed on
Monday, the army shared on social media a photo of aircraft parts and other
debris littering a sheer mountainside including a wing with the registration
number 9N-AET clearly visible.
Four Indians were
on board as well as two Germans, with
the remainder Nepalis. There was no word on the cause of the crash.
The Civil Aviation Authority
confirmed that the plane "met an accident" at 14,500 feet (4,420
metres) in the Sanosware area of Thasang rural municipality in Mustang
district.
"Fourteen bodies have
been recovered so far, search continues for the remaining. The weather is very
bad but we were able to take a team to the crash site. No other flight has been
possible," authority spokesman Deo Chandra Lal Karn told AFP.
Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev
Raj Subedi told AFP the rescuers had followed GPS, mobile and
satellite signals to narrow down the location.
Pradeep Gauchan, a local
official, said that the wreckage was at a height of around 3,800-4,000 metres
(12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.
"It is very difficult to
reach there by foot. One team has been dropped close to the area by a
helicopter but it is cloudy right now so flights have not been possible,"
Gauchan told AFP earlier in the day.
"Helicopters are on
standby waiting for the clouds to clear," he said.
According to the Aviation
Safety Network website, the aircraft was made by Canada's de Havilland and made
its first flight more than 40 years ago in 1979.
Tara Air is a subsidiary of
Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier that services many remote
destinations across Nepal.
It suffered its last fatal
accident in 2016 on the same route when a plane with 23 on board crashed into
a mountainside in Myagdi district.
Nepal's air
industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between
hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.
But it has long been plagued
by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.
The European Union has banned
all Nepali airlines from its airspace over safety concerns.
The Himalayan country also has
some of the world's most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped
peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.
The weather can also change
quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla
Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandu's notoriously difficult
international airport, skidded into a football field and burst into flames.
Fifty-one people died and 20
miraculously escaped the burning wreckage but sustained serious injuries.
That accident was Nepal's
deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International
Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.
Just two months earlier
a Thai Airways
aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.
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