On a Sunday morning in the Himalayan district of Mustang, a Tara Air Twin Otter that had lifted off from the tourist town of Pokhara bound for Jomsom vanished into bad weather and came down at about 14,500 feet, taking all 22 people aboard. By Tuesday the last of the dead had been brought off the mountain, a grim closing of one chapter in a story Nepal has told too often, where the sky between its peaks has repeatedly claimed travelers and crews. What remains is the slower question of why a turn that was meant to be made to the left was made to the right, and whether the country's aviation can
Nepal Army Recovers Last Body from Tara Air Crash Site in Mustang; 22 Killed in Twin Otter Crash
All 22 people aboard, including four Indians, two Germans, 13 Nepali passengers and a three-member Nepali crew, were killed.
The turn that was not made
Mark
The army says the last body is recovered. What does that actually close out?
Mimi
The recovery. All 22 people aboard died, and the work now is bringing the remaining 12 bodies down to Kathmandu from the crash site.
Mark
And the cause? There's already a version of it.
Mimi
CAAN's director-general told a parliamentary committee the plane swerved right instead of left in bad weather and hit the mountains.
Luke
But that's labeled preliminary, and it comes from one official describing an early finding. A five-member commission under Ratish Chandra Lal Suman has only just been formed. Nothing here is confirmed.
Mark
Does the weather explanation stand on its own?
Luke
The source doesn't say why the plane turned the wrong way, or what the weather was exactly. Those are open questions.
Mimi
What is solid is the location: Thasang-2 in Mustang, at 14,500 feet, minutes after leaving Pokhara.
Mark
There's a family from Thane among the dead.
Mimi
Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar and their children Dhanush and Ritika. Two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers were also aboard, plus three crew.
Luke
One thing to note: the reports say 12 bodies remain at the site, while CAAN counted ten in Kathmandu and eleven at base camp. Those figures are from different moments, so I wouldn't try to reconcile them.
Mark
And the history?
Mimi
A 2016 Tara Air crash on the same route killed 23. That context matters, though the source doesn't link the two causes.
El Pulso
- A small plane vanished in bad weather over Mustang, and families waited through the hours of silence before the wreckage was found.
- Rescue teams battled thin air and mountain terrain to reach the crash site at Thasang-2, bringing bodies out in stages.
- A preliminary account says the aircraft swerved right instead of left in storm conditions, a detail that now drives the national inquiry.
- A five-member commission led by aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman is tasked with finding the cause, and its findings are now the next step.
On a Sunday morning in the Himalayan district of Mustang, a Tara Air Twin Otter that had lifted off from the tourist town of Pokhara bound for Jomsom vanished into bad weather and came down at about 14,500 feet, taking all 22 people aboard. By Tuesday the last of the dead had been brought off the mountain, a grim closing of one chapter in a story Nepal has told too often, where the sky between its peaks has repeatedly claimed travelers and crews. What remains is the slower question of why a turn that was meant to be made to the left was made to the right, and whether the country's aviation can learn enough from this loss to spare the next family its own.
On Tuesday morning the Nepal Army announced that the last body had been recovered from the wreckage of the Tara Air plane that went down in Mustang district on Sunday. The aircraft had 22 people on board and crashed minutes after leaving Pokhara. Army spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal shared the news, adding that the remaining bodies would be brought to Kathmandu.
The recovery had been done in stages. By Monday night, 21 bodies had been retrieved, and teams returned on Tuesday to find the last. The Canadian-built Twin Otter had been flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town, when it went missing. Among those aboard were four Indians, including the Tripathy family from Thane near Mumbai, two Germans, 13 Nepali passengers and a three-member Nepali crew.
The plane came down at Thasang-2 at 14,500 feet. Army, private helicopter and rescue teams reached the site, and a photo showed the tail and one wing still intact. So far there is only a preliminary account: the aircraft swerved right instead of left because of bad weather. The government has formed a five-member commission headed by Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to determine the cause.
The crash joins a long list of Nepali air tragedies, from a 2016 Tara Air loss on the same route to the 2018 US-Bangla crash in Kathmandu. Tara Air, which began in 2009 with a mission to serve rural Nepal, now faces the scrutiny of that commission. With the bodies recovered, attention turns to what it concludes about the turn that was not made.
On Tuesday morning, the Nepal Army announced that rescuers had recovered the last body from the wreckage of the Tara Air plane that went down in Mustang district on Sunday. The aircraft had 22 people on board and crashed minutes after leaving the tourist city of Pokhara. Army spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal posted the news on Twitter, adding that arrangements were under way to bring the remaining 12 bodies from the crash site to Kathmandu.
The recovery had been done in stages. By Monday night, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said 21 bodies had been retrieved, and teams went back out on Tuesday to find the last one. According to CAAN's Monday statement, ten bodies had been flown to Kathmandu, while eleven were taken to the base camp from which the rescue operation was being coordinated.
The aircraft was a Canadian-built turboprop Twin Otter, registered 9N-AET. It went missing on Sunday morning while flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal. On board were four Indians, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, along with a three-member Nepali crew. The airline's passenger list named the Indian passengers as Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy) and their children Dhanush and Ritika, a family based in Thane, near Mumbai.
CAAN said the plane came down at Thasang-2 in Mustang, at an altitude of 14,500 feet. Search and rescue teams from the Nepal Army, Air Dynasty, Kailash Helicopter and Fishtail Air Helicopter, along with other rescue workers, were sent to the site. A photo posted on social media shows the tail and one wing of the aircraft still intact.
On the cause, there is so far only a preliminary account. CAAN Director-General Pradeep Adhikari told a parliamentary International Committee meeting on Monday that the plane crashed into the mountains after swerving to the right instead of turning left because of bad weather. The government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry, headed by senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman, to determine the cause. President Bidya Devi Bhandari and Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba have offered condolences over the deaths of the passengers and crew.
The crash adds to a long record of air accidents in Nepal, a country that holds eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, Everest among them. In 2016, all 23 people aboard a plane of the same airline, flying the same route, were killed after takeoff. In March 2018, a US-Bangla Air crash at Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu killed 51 people. A Sita Air flight crashed in September 2012 during an emergency landing at the same airport, killing 19. And on May 14, 2012, a plane flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed near Jomsom airport, killing 15.
Tara Air describes itself on its website as the newest and biggest airline service provider in the Nepalese mountains. It began operating in 2009 with a stated mission of helping develop rural Nepal. With all the bodies now recovered, attention turns to the Suman commission and what it concludes about the turn that was not made.
Citas Notables
The last dead body has been recovered.— Brigadier General Narayan Silwal, Nepal Army spokesperson
The plane swerved right instead of turning left because of bad weather, a preliminary investigation found.— Pradeep Adhikari, CAAN Director-General
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