June 1, 2022
KATHMANDU – Rescuers have recovered bodies of all 22 people on board a Tara Air plane that crashed in northwest Nepal on Sunday.
“All bodies have been airlifted to Kathmandu. They have been sent to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj for postmortem,” said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
He said that the black box recovered from the crash site has been handed over to the government’s investigation commission.
The plane with 19 passengers and three crew members had gone missing on Sunday morning, minutes after it took off from Pokhara for Jomsom. The wreckage of the plane, however, was found on Monday morning.
Angad Dhakal/TKP
On Monday, the government formed a five-member accident investigation commission headed by Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, former director-general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
The bodies of 10 people were sent to Kathmandu on Monday. The remaining 12 were brought on Tuesday to Kathmandu through a Nepal Army MI-17 chopper, said Karna.
The mortal remains will be handed over to families of the victims after postmortem, said Karna.
The Canadian-made DHC-6-300 Twin Otter plane had taken off from Pokhara to Jomsom at 9:55 am on Sunday. It lost contact with the air traffic controller at 10:07 am, according to a statement issued by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal on Sunday.
Angad Dhakal/TKP