Children are among 23 people dead after a small aircraft crashed while flying over a mountain range in Nepal
KATHMANDU (Nepal) – A small plane crashed in Nepal on Wednesday in a mountainous region of northern Nepal due to bad weather, killing all 23 people on board, a police official said the country’s second air disaster in as many years.
Aananda Prasad Pokharel said the Twin Otter turboprop aircraft had been found in the western district of Myagdi and bodies could be seen scattered around it. The wreckage of the plane was found in a completely burnt state in Solighopte in Myagdi district,” said Pokharel, minister for culture, tourism and civil aviation.
‘The team there says that the bodies are scattered and it is not possible to identify anyone right now,’ he added.
Domestic airline Tara Air said rescue helicopters had been deployed to search for the Twin Otter aircraft, which lost contact with air traffic control eight minutes after it left the western town of Pokhara for Jomsom on Wednesday morning.
Pokhara, where the flight originated, is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Nepal. Jomsom is the gateway for one of the most popular Himalayan trekking routes.
Pilot Roshan Manandhar, during his final conversation with Pokhara Air Traffic Control, mentioned that the flight was normal, said Jasoda Subedi, Chief air traffic controller at Pokhara Airport.
The police chief at Jomsom, Harihari Yogi, said they had reports from local villagers of hearing a loud explosion near the small village of Rupshe and attempts were being made to reach it.
The airline said the plane was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, one Chinese and one Kuwaiti national, revising an earlier figure of 18 passengers. All the others were from Nepal and two of them were children.
Nepal’s recent air crashes
March 2015: Lucky escape for passengers after plane skids off runway in fog in Kathmandu
February 2014: Bodies of all 18 people recovered after small plane crashes in western Nepal
September 2012: Plane heading for Everest region crashes on the outskirts of Kathmandu, killing all 19 on board
May 2012: Fifteen people die when plane carrying Indian pilgrims crashes in northern Nepal
September 2010: Sight-seeing flight crashes into a hillside near Kathmandu
September 2006: All 24 people on board a WWF helicopter die when it crashes in eastern Nepal
