Bodies of all 22 dead in Nepal plane crash recovered
Rescue officials have also found the black box of the plane that crashed on Sunday with four Indians among the passengers.
The Nepal Army on Tuesday said that it has recovered the body of the last of the 22 passengers who died in a private airplane crash in Nepal’s Mustang district on Sunday, PTI reported.
There were four Indians among the passengers onboard. Bodies of 21 passengers had been recovered till Monday night, out of which ten were flown to Kathmandu by the Army.
“The last dead body has been recovered,” Nepal Army Spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal said on Tuesday morning. “[We are] arranging to bring the remaining 12 dead bodies from the crash site to Kathmandu.”
Rescue officials have also found the black box of the plane, according to ANI.
The 9N-AET Twin Otter plane had gone missing soon after it took off from the tourist town of Pokhara for the mountain town of Jomsom at 9.55 am local time on Sunday. The plane had lost contact with the airport tower at 10.07 am in the Ghodepani area, according to the country’s civil aviation authority. It was supposed to reach Jomsom at 10.15 am.
The four Indian passengers on the plane were identified as Ashok Kumar Tripathi, Dhanush Tripathi, Ritika Tripathi and Vaibhawi Tripathi. All were members of the same family.
Apart from the Indians, the plane was carrying 13 Nepalis, two Germans and three crew members.
On Monday, the Nepal government said that it has constituted a five-member investigation committee under Senior Aeronautical Engineer Ratindra Lal Suman to determine the cause of the crash and recommend measures to prevent such accidents in the future, according to The Indian Express.
However, a preliminary investigation by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal has indicated that inclement weather led to the crash, according to PTI.