প্রকাশ: 31/05/2022
Nepal authorities on
Monday recovered or located the bodies of all but one of 22 people who were on
board a plane that crashed into a Himalayan mountainside on Sunday, officials
said, and the government has formed a panel to investigate the incident.
Two Germans, four Indians and 16 Nepalis were on the De
Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft which crashed 15 minutes after
taking off from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125 km (80 miles) west of Kathmandu,
on Sunday morning.
"There is very little chance to find survivors,"
said Deo Chandra Lal Karna, a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority of
Nepal.
Nepali soldiers and rescue workers had retrieved 20 bodies
from the wreckage, strewn across a steep slope at an altitude of around 14,500
feet. They were trying to recover another body they had seen, officials said.
The government said it had set up a five-member panel to
determine the cause of the crash and suggest prevention measures for the
future.
The difficult terrain and poor weather have hampered the
search parties. An image published in Nepali media showed uniformed rescue
workers moving a body from the wreckage and using ropes to haul it onto a
stretcher and up a steep, grassy ridge.
"There is very thick cloud in the area," Netra
Prasad Sharma, the most senior bureaucrat in the Mustang district, where the
crash took place, told Reuters by phone.
In Kathmandu, the capital, relatives of victims waited for
the bodies to be brought back from the crash site.
"I am waiting for my son's body," Maniram Pokhrel told Reuters, his voice choking. His son Utsav Pokhrel, 25, was the copilot.
Operated by privately owned Tara Air, the aircraft crashed
in cloudy weather and the wreckage wasn't spotted until Monday morning by
Nepal's army.
The plane was headed to Jomsom, a popular tourist and
pilgrimage site that lies about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara - usually
a 20-minute flight.
But the aircraft lost contact with the Pokhara control tower
five minutes before it was due to land, airline officials said.
The crash site is close to Nepal's border with China, in a
region where Mount Dhaulagiri, the world's seventh-highest peak at 8,167 metres
(26,795 feet), is located.
Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the aircraft first
flew 43 years ago.
Air accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of
the world's 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as the weather can change
suddenly and make for hazardous conditions.
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.
- Reuters
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