Nepal Plane Crash: All 22 presumed dead, 20 bodies recovered
A small plane with 22 passengers and crew on board in Nepal went missing early in the morning on May 29, 2022, Sunday. After hours of search effort, the Nepal Army, on Monday, said it found the remains of the crashed plane.
- Airplane type: 9N-AET Twin Otter aircraft (manufactured by Canadian firm de Havilland)
- The aircraft was 43 years old.
- Run by Nepal airliner Tara Air
- Trip: Took off from Pokhara, was headed to Jomsom airport, Mustang
- Crash site: 14,500ft in Sano Sware Bhir of Thasang in Mustang district
- Passenger and crew: 13 Nepali passengers, 4 Indians, 2 Germans and 3 Nepali crew members.
- Survivors: None are presumed to have survived the crash. So far, 20 bodies have been recovered.
WHAT HAPPENED?
We are following reports that a Tara Air Twin Otter is missing in Nepal. The aircraft took off from Pokhara at 04:10 UTC time. We received the last ADS-B signal at 04:22 UTC. Our ADS-B coverage in the area is limited.https://t.co/H6eCK6iknO pic.twitter.com/H3pXLUpGa5
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) May 29, 2022
- May 29, 2022, 9.40 am (IST): Plane takes off from Pokhara
- May 29, 2022, 9.52 am (IST): Plane’s last signal transmission recorded before going ‘missing’
- It was a 20-minute flight and the plane crashed minutes before it was due to land.
- 'The aircraft was seen over the sky of Jomsom in Mustang and then had diverted to Mt Dhaulagiri, after which it hadn't come into contact,' ANI quoted Chief District Officer of Mustang, Netra Prasad Sharma, as saying.
- Search and rescue teams traced the location of the plane based on the phone signal of the lone pilot of the plane.
- Bad weather delays search and rescue operation.
- May 30, 2022, 6.55 am: Nepal Army officially announced that they have physically located the plane.
THE INDIAN TOURISTS
Rescue effort to search plane of Tara Air is resumed.... Sent from Viber https://t.co/o7gHku9WU4 pic.twitter.com/nIkuICtHXj
— NASpokesperson (@NaSpokesperson) May 30, 2022
Pokhara, from where the plane took off, is a popular tourist destination in Nepal. Jomsom is also a popular tourist destination and a pilgrimage site where the Muktinath temple is located.
The Indian nationals on board the plane have been identified as a family of four from Thane, Maharashtra - 54-year-old Ashok Tripathi, his wife 51-year-old Vaibhavi Bandekar-Tripathi, 22-year-old son Dhanyasya Tripathi and 18-year-old daughter Ritika Tripathi.
PLANE CRASHES IN NEPAL
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has now confirmed that the #TaraAir twin otter 9N-AET plane that was missing since yesterday morning had crashed at Thasang-2 in Mustang district at the height of 14,500 feet. pic.twitter.com/H6qJ9nQhZw
— Thira L. Bhusal (@ThiraLalBhusal) May 30, 2022
10 years ago, in 2012, during the same month (May 14), on the same route, a small plane crashed near the Jomsom airport killing 15 people out of the 21 on board. The aircraft was a Dornier Do-228 plane operated by Nepal’s Agni Air.
In 2016, another Tara Airlines Twin Otter plane flying on the same route crashed, killing all 23 people on board.
Usually, planes in this region have to fly between mountains before landing on a strip in a valley.
Nepal is no stranger to plane crashes. The country, which is home to 8 of the 14 highest peaks in the world including Mt Everest, has some of the most challenging landing strips and flying conditions, where the weather can suddenly change for the worse.
Besides the geographical location of Nepal, the country has poor infrastructure and safety policies when it comes to aviation. In 2013, all Nepal-based airlines were banned from flying in the European Union’s airspace due to safety issues. As of 2022, the blacklist continues.