On Sunday 29th May, a Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft with registration 9N-AET went missing while performing a flight from Pokhara to Jomsom, Nepal.
According to The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, 19 passengers and three crew members were onboard the aircraft. It departed from Pokhara at 9:55 am local time. Four passengers were Indian citizens and two of them were German citizens. The aircraft lost contact at around 10:07 am in the Ghodepani area.
Update 3:45 UTC (2022/05/30)
The Nepalese Army has found the wreckage of the crashed Tara Air plane at an altitude of 14,500 feet in the mountains of Nepal. The rescue team has recovered 14 bodies from the crash site.
“Some of the bodies of the passengers are beyond recognition. Police gathering the remains.”
Nepal Police spokesperson
Update 13:00 UTC
Search and rescue operations has been called off for day due to bad weather and snowfall. All the helicopters deployed for search and rescue have been called back to base.
Around 100 security personnel of the Nepali Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force have been deployed for the search and rescue mission.
Update 12:15 UTC
The Tara Air aircraft crashed under the landslide of Manapathi Himal at the mouth of the Lamchr River, as reported by the locals to Nepal Army. The plane reportedly crashed due to bad weather in the region.
The Army team was able to locate the probable crash site after Captain Prabhakar Ghimire’s cellphone was traced through the Global Positioning System (GPS) network.
Earlier Updates
Private helicopters have been dispatched to the areas where the last contact was made, according to the air traffic controller of Jomsom Airport.
The Chief District Officer stated that bad weather has hampered the search operations at the site where the aircraft was last spotted by the witnesses.
“A team of police has been mobilized at the site. The site is a 12-hour walk from Lete. There are no human settlements in the area where locals last spotted the plane. As soon as the weather improves, the helicopter will begin aerial operations.”
Chief District Officer of Myagdi Chiranjibi Rana
The Nepalese Army has been deployed to help in the search and rescue operation of the aircraft.
“We have mobilized our search and rescue teams from both ground and aerial operations. We are yet to trace the plane.”
Nepal Army spokesperson
Feature Image: via Twitter