KATHMANDU, May 30 (Reuters) – Hopes in Nepal on Monday will find survivors among 22 people aboard a small plane that crashed on a Himalayan mountain slope a day earlier, officials said, leaving only two not yet clarified.
Two Germans, four Indians and 16 Nepalese were on board the De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, 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 of finding survivors,” said Deo Chandra Lal Carna, a spokesman for Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority.
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Nepalese soldiers and rescue workers have removed 20 bodies from the wreckage, scattered on a steep slope at an altitude of about 14,500 feet.
Difficult terrain and bad weather had hindered the wanted. An image published in the Nepalese media shows uniformed rescuers moving a body from the wreckage and using ropes to pull it on a stretcher up a steep, grassy ridge.
“There is a very thick cloud in the area,” he told Reuters by telephone Netra Prasad Sharma, the top bureaucrat in the Mustang district where the crash took place. “The search for bodies continues.”
In Kathmandu, relatives of the victims were waiting for the bodies to be returned from the crash site, and aviation authorities said in a tweet that no official identification of the victims has yet been made.
“I’m waiting for my son’s body,” Maniram Pohrel told Reuters in a choking voice. Ucav Pohrel’s 25-year-old son was a co-pilot.
Served by private Tara Air, the plane crashed in cloudy weather on Sunday morning and the wreckage was not seen until Monday morning by the Nepalese army. Read more
The destination was Jomsom, a popular place for tourists and pilgrimage, located about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara – usually a 20-minute flight.
However, the plane lost contact with the Pokhara control tower five minutes before landing, airline officials said. Read more
The crash site is near Nepal’s border with China, in the region where Dhaulagiri Peak is located, the seventh highest peak in the world with a height of 8,167 meters (26,795 feet).
Flightradar24, a flight tracking website, said the 9N-AET had its first flight 43 years ago.
Aerial accidents are not uncommon in Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest, as weather can change abruptly, making mountain runs dangerous.
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.
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Report by Gopal Sharma; Writing by Devjyot Ghoshal and Krishna N. Das; Edited by Muralikumar Anantaraman, Kenneth Maxwell and Simon Cameron-Moore
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