Tara Air Plane That Lost Contact Crashed Near Nepal And China Border, Bodies Of 14 Of 22 Passengers Found

Illustration of a De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Tara Air aircraft in Nepal. (Wikimedia Commons/Bigforrap)

JAKARTA - Nepalese rescue workers managed to find the Tara Air plane carrying 22 passengers and lost contact yesterday, falling at an altitude of 14,000 feet, with around 14 bodies recovered.

The plane is thought to have crashed during overcast skies on Sunday and was spotted by Nepalese troops on Monday morning, after search operations that had been halted overnight resumed.

"It's very unlikely to find any survivors," said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, a spokesman for the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority.

Meanwhile, Tek Raj Sitaula, spokesman for Tribhuvan International Airport in Nepal's capital Kathmandu, said the bodies of 14 people had so far been recovered by rescue teams.

"The search for other people continues," Sitaula told Reuters.

The De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter took off from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125 km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu, on Sunday morning. His destination was Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site located about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara.

Usually, the flight only lasts 20 minutes. However, the plane, which was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalis on board, lost contact with the Pokhara control tower five minutes before landing, airline officials said.

The crash site is in the area where Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh highest peak at 8,167 meters (26,795 ft) is located, near Nepal's border with China.

Troops from Nepalese authorities and other rescue workers are operating in the rugged mountainous area at an altitude of about 14,500 feet with thick clouds, officials said.

Netra Prasad Sharma, the most senior bureaucrat in Mustang district, where the accident occurred, said weather conditions were still challenging.

"There are very thick clouds in the area. The search for bodies is ongoing," he said by telephone.

Meanwhile, flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the plane, with registration number 9N-AET, made its first flight in April 1979.

Nepal, home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest, has a record air crash. The weather can change suddenly and airstrips are usually located in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach.

In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.