20 bodies recovered from crashed Nepal plane, two still missing

A day after a Nepali Tara Air plane went missing with 22 people on board, the country’s army said it had found the wreckage of the crashed plane and recovered 20 bodies while two were still missing.

A spokesman for the Nepali army, Narayan Silwan, on Monday, posted a picture on Twitter of the wreckage with the plane’s tail number visible and parts of the aircraft shown scattered on the edge of a mountain, and identified the crash site as Sanosware in the Thasang-2 province.

“Efforts are under way to bring the bodies to Kathmandu,” Teknath Sitaula, a spokesman for the capital’s Tribhuvan International Airport also said after the discovery of the missing plane.

Weather and darkness had halted the search overnight, but an army helicopter and private choppers resumed the search on Monday morning.

“The weather is very bad but we were able to take a team to the crash site. No other flight has been possible,” Sitaula added, assuring that search for the remaining two was continuing.

Read also :‘Small’ Nepal plane with 22 people on board goes missing

There were 19 passengers and three crew members on board the Twin Otter aircraft, operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air, when it went missing on Sunday.

The passengers included four Indians, two Germans, and 16 Nepalis, according to the airline and government officials.

The plane had taken off from the tourist town of Pokhara at 9:55am (0410 GMT) on Sunday, and was bound for Jomsom, a popular pilgrimage site about 80km (50 miles) to the northwest of Pokhara.

It was on a 20-minute scheduled flight, but lost contact with the airport tower close to landing in an area of deep river gorges and mountaintops.

Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Mt. Everest, and has a record of air accidents with its weather subject to sudden changes and airstrips are typically located in mountainous areas that are hard to reach.

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