Again, plane crash kills 19 passengers, 3 crew on board

The Nepalese country has been thrown into mourning as 19 passengers, including three crew members on board were killed in a fatal aircrash on Sunday.

However, officials of Nepalese on Tuesday confirmed the death of the 22 passengers on board in the plane that crashed on May 29.

It was learnt the corpses of the victims were recovered by rescuers from the wreckage.

According to the spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Deo Chandra Lal Karn, they are waiting for favourable weather to transport the remaining bodies to Kathmandu from the crash site in the Himalayas.

He narrated that ten bodies were brought to Kathmandu by helicopter on Monday evening, stating that the bodies would be identified before being handed over to family members.

According to the report, the plane’s wreckage was found at an altitude of almost 4,500 metres in Sanosware in Mustang, a Himalayan district north-west of Kathmandu, more than 20 hours after it was first reported missing, as said by the Ministry of Culture Tourism and Civil Aviation.

Police, noted that rescue efforts took longer than expected because of the bad weather and difficult terrain.

“There were three crew members and nineteen passengers on board, sixteen were Nepali nationals, two were German and four were Indian.

“The Tara Airlines plane was making the short flight to Jomsom from Pokhara, around 200 kilometres west of Kathmandu, when it lost contact with air traffic control.

“The flight normally takes around 20 minutes and is considered a particularly accident-prone route, even in the context of Nepal’s poor track record on air safety.

The Nepali Times said, at least 74 people have died on the route in five plane crashes since 1997 (NAN).