KATHMANDU (Nepal), May 30 (Agencies): All 22 people on board the Tara Air plane that crashed in Nepal’s Mustang District on Sunday are suspected dead and 14 bodies have been recovered from the incident site.
“We have suspected all the passengers on board the aircraft have lost their lives. Our preliminary assessment has shown that no one could have survived the crash but the official statement is due,” Phadindra Mani Pokhrel, Spokesperson at Home Ministry told ANI on Monday. Officials present at the plane crash site have recovered 14 bodies till now. The bodies will be flown to Kathmandu for postmortem, they said.
The Nepal Army spokesperson said that a team of 15 soldiers are walking up to the site to collect the bodies. However, a team with Leiteunent Mangal Shrestha, a police inspector and a Guide have already reached the site.
“A team of 15 Nepali Army soldiers has been dropped near the crash site to retrieve the dead bodies. Crash site lies at an elevation of about 14,500 feet while the team has been dropped at 11000 meters height,” the Spokesperson said.
“They are walking up to the crash site. Big size helicopters are not possible to be land near the crash site. The earlier team which reached there already is doing the work of collecting the bodies.”
The Nepal Army today morning found the wreckage of the army twin-engine Tara Air passenger plane which crashed on Sunday with 22 people on board, including four Indians, at the Sanosware of Mustang District.
The Nepal Army on Monday resumed the search operation of the aircraft after it was halted on Sunday due to the bad weather conditions.
All helicopters deployed for the search of the crashed aircraft were called back to their bases on Sunday after a snowfall in Mustang district, Premnath Thakur, General Manager of Tribhuvan International Airport said.
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.