Disasters & Accidents

All 22 bodies, black box recovered from Tara Air aircraft crash site

Kathmandu, May 31 (EFE).- Rescuers teams have recovered the bodies of all 22 people aboard the Tara Air plane that crashed in the Himalayas during inclement weather earlier this week, Nepal’s civil aviation regulator said on Tuesday.

Sixteen Nepalis, including three crew members, four Indians and two German nationals were killed in the crash.

“All bodies have been airlifted to Kathmandu. They have been sent to the hospital for postmortem,” Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal spokesperson Deo Chandra Lal Karna told EFE.

The bodies of 10 people were sent to Kathmandu on Monday, while the remaining 12 were brought in Kathmandu the following day, according to the spokesperson

“We have formally closed the search and rescue mission,” Karna said. “After completing necessary formalities, the bodies will be handed over to their respective families.”

The black box from the crash site has also been recovered and handed over to the government’s investigation commission on Tuesday.

On Monday, the government formed a five-member commission headed by Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal’s former director-general Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to investigate the accident.

So far, preliminary reports indicate bad weather as the reason behind the crash, according to Karna.

Tara Air plane, which exclusively flies in the remote part of Nepal, had gone missing since early Sunday, and was found crashed on a mountain in northwestern Nepal at 14,500ft the following day.

The wreckage of the plane was found scattered all over a 100-meter radius at Sano Sware Bhir in Thasang of Mustang, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.

The Canadian-made DHC-6-300 Twin Otter plane had taken off for Jomsom from Pokhara at 9.55am and lost contact with the air traffic controller at 10.07am, according to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on Sunday.

In Nepal, flying in remote airfields is usually dangerous during the March-April period as there are high winds in the mountain areas.

In the May-June period, due to the pre-monsoon and monsoon factors, the weather fluctuates within minutes making it difficult for pilots to land.

All flights in remote airfields in Nepal are operated under the Visual Flight Rules, a set of safety regulations related to the weather for flight operations. EFE

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