Tara Air plane crash: bodies of 16 people found

Myagdi: The bodies of 16 persons have been found at the site at Sanusare, Thasang Rural municipality-2 of Mustang district where a Tara Air plane crashed on Sunday.

The District administration Office Mustang said the security personnel and locals who reached the crash site found 16 bodies at 10.30 am.  

The administrative officer at the Office, Devendra Raj Pandey said the identity of the bodies pressed by the aircraft wreckage is being established.

The team of army and police personnel and Sherpas who reached the crash site by helicopter and the locals who reached via the land route are retrieving the bodies and searching for the missing ones.

A contingent of about 100 security personnel has reached close to the crash site which is at an altitude of more than 4,000 metres from the mean sea level.

Administrative officer Pandey said sending additional security personnel and bringing the bodies back by helicopter has been difficult due to the fog cover at the crash site.

There is a plan of bringing the bodies to Kobang via helicopter after search and rescue and the retrieved bodies are identified and a police report about this is prepared.

A helicopter each of the Nepal Army, Fishtail Air and Kailash Air had been mobilised for the search, said Chief District Officer, Mustang, Netra Prasad Sharma.

A helicopter returned to Naurikot after transporting rescuers at the incident site when the weather was good, he said, adding that efforts were on to ferry more rescuers and collected bodies when the weather improves.

The wreckage of the aircraft was recovered at the foot of Manapathi Mountain, around a four-hour walk from Kowang of Thasang Rural Municipality.

The Twin Otter aircraft of Tara Air with 22 people including three crew members on board took off at 9:55 am from Pokhara for Jomsom and lost contact with the air control in Jomsom at 10:07 am.

According to Tara Air, the passengers included 13 Nepali people, four Indian and two Germans.