The raid involved an Army helicopter and personal helicopters
The document symbol shows Tara Airs DHC-6 Twin Otter, tail number 9N-AET, in Simikot, Nepal. Reuters Archive
Kathmandu, 29 May
The fate of 22 people, plus four members of an Indian family, aboard a Nepalese airline plane remains doubtful as bad weather and clouds made it difficult to locate the plane that disappeared Sunday in the Himalayan nation’s mountainous region after takeoff. The tourist the city of Pokhara, authorities said.
So far the status of the Tara Air aircraft that took off at 10:15 from Pokhara, two hundred kilometers east of Kathmandu, is unknown, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said in a statement.
The Twin Otter 9N-AET turboprop aircraft had 4 Indian nationals, two Germans and thirteen Nepalese passengers in addition to a nepali crew of three, said Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesman for the airlines.
The plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist from the city in central Nepal.
The airline published the passenger list that knew four Indians such as Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy) and their children Dhanush and Ritika. The family lately lives in the city of Thane, near Mumbai.
“As search operations at imaginable sites have been hampered due to mountainous terrain and bad weather, the prestige of the aircraft is still unknown,” the CAAN said.
“However, the rescue coordination remains open 24 hours a day and air and ground search operations will be intensified,” he added.
An army helicopter and personal helicopters participated in the search, he said.
A spokesman for Nepal’s military said troops and the helicopter, along with rescue groups, are seeking to locate the imaginable location of the incident, which is believed to be in Andet, Mustang and its environs.
“Poor visibility due to bad weather hinders efforts. The aircraft has not yet been located. We tried to succeed in the position where the locals would have noticed something on fire. Once our troops have arrived on the scene, only we can determine the findings. “officially and independently,” the spokesman said.
He said the army had “halted all search and rescue efforts due to loss of sunlight and bad weather. The search will resume early Monday morning, either from the air or from the ground. The search and rescue team is waiting in Jomsom, he added.
In a tweet, the Indian Embassy in Nepal issued an emergency number: 977-9851107021.
“Tara Air flight 9NAET which took off from Pokhara at 9:55 a. m. with another 22 people on board, and four more Indians, he disappeared. The search and rescue operation is ongoing. The embassy is in contact with his family,” he said.
The aircraft team was led by Captain Prabhakar Prasad Ghimire. Utsav Pokhrel is the co-pilot, while Kismi Thapa is the stewardess, the data manager of Pokhara Dev Raj Adhikari Airport.
The plane will land at Jomsom Airport in the mountainous western region at 10:15 a. m.
Lost contact with the tower from the sky over Ghorepani on the Pokhara-Jomsom air route, air assets said.
According to an air traffic controller at Jomsom Airport, they have an unconfirmed report of loud noise in Jomsom’s Ghasa. They suspected that the aircraft had crashed in the Dhaulagiri area.
A Nepal Army helicopter with 10 infantrymen and two civil aviation authority workers landed on a riverbank near Narshang Monastery, the imaginable site of the crash, Prem Nath Thakur, director general of Tribhuvan International Airport, told My Republica newspaper.
Interestingly, the aircraft was located after Nepal Telecom discovered the cell phone of the aircraft’s pilot, Captain Prabhakar Ghimire, through the Global Positioning System (GPS) network.
“Captain Ghimire’s mobile phone rang from the missing plane and the Nepal Army helicopter landed at the imaginable crash site after following the Nepal Telecom captain’s phone,” Thakur said.
Myagdi district leader Chiranjibi Rana earlier told The Kathmandu Post newspaper that bad weather had hampered search efforts at the site where the plane last sighted locals.
According to him, citizens reported that the plane circled in Khaibang and headed towards Kiti Danda near Lete Pass (2,500 m).
“A police team was mobilized in the Array. It is 12 hours walk from Lete,” he said. “There are no human settlements in the domain where citizens last saw the plane. “start flight operations,” Rana said.
A helicopter that left Pokhara in search of the missing aircraft the previous day returned unsuccessfully due to the weather.
Interior Minister Bal Krishna Khand ordered the government to step up search operations for the missing plane.
Mustang district chief Netra Prasad Sharma said that following instructions from the interior minister, security officials in five districts adjacent to Dhaulagiri peak were suggested to remain alert.
The plane last followed when it turned toward Dhaulagiri Peak, officials said.
A Nepal Army MI-17 helicopter was also sent from Kathmandu to Lete to assist in the search operation.
Relatives of the missing team and passengers accumulated at Pokhara airport.
In 2016, the other 23 people on board were killed when a plane from the same airline in the same direction crashed after takeoff.
In March 2018, a US-Bangla Air crash occurred at Tribhuvan International Airport, killing another 51 people on board.
A Sita Air flight crashed in September 2012 on an emergency landing at Tribhuvan International Airport, killing 19 people.
A plane flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed near Jomsom Airport on May 14, 2012, killing 15 people.
Tara Air is the last and largest air service provider in the mountains of Nepal, according to the airline’s website. His activities in 2009 with the project to help expand the rural areas of Nepal. PTI
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