On a Sunday morning in late May 2022, a small Tara Air Twin Otter lifted from the river town of Pokhara bound for Jomsom, the high gateway to the Mustang region, and vanished from the sky within minutes. Its wreckage, scattered across a Himalayan gorge near Sanosware, became the grim resting place for twenty-one of the twenty-two people aboard, a loss that reached far beyond the mountains to families in Nepal, India, and the German state of Hesse. As rescuers work the slopes for the last missing traveler, the crash reopens an old question that hangs over flight in these valleys: how much risk
Nepal Tara Air crash: 21 of 22 bodies recovered from mountain wreckage, search continues for one
Twenty-one of the 22 people aboard were killed, with one person still missing and relatives waiting at the airport for news.
Rescuers working with their bare hands had difficulty moving the metal debris
Mark
Twenty-one of twenty-two bodies recovered. What's the situation on the mountain right now?
Mimi
Rescuers are still looking for the last person. Some bodies were pinned under the wreckage, and with bare hands they struggled to move the metal.
Luke
Worth noting that the one missing person is not identified in this reporting. We don't know who it is or whether it's a passenger or crew.
Mark
Who was aboard?
Mimi
Four Indians, two Germans from Hesse, and three Nepali crew plus other Nepali passengers. Local reports mention two Nepali families, of four and seven.
Luke
The family detail comes from local news reports, not from the airline. Tara Air gave nationalities; the family groupings are attributed.
Mark
How did they find the wreck?
Mimi
Villagers searching for Yarsagumba found it. One of them, Bishal Magar, said they followed the smell of fuel on Monday morning.
Luke
And his idea that the plane clipped a smaller mountain before hitting a bigger one is one villager's impression. No cause has been established.
Mark
And the aircraft's history?
Mimi
Twin Otters have flown in Nepal for about 50 years, with about 21 accidents according to aviationnepal.com.
Luke
That figure is one site's count, and it says nothing by itself about this crash. It's context, not an explanation.
O Pulso
- A Tara Air Twin Otter went silent minutes after leaving Pokhara, and the tower lost contact with it on a route that normally takes about twenty minutes.
- Rescuers clawing at heavy metal with bare hands recovered 21 bodies from the mountainside, some pinned beneath the wreckage.
- One passenger is still missing, and relatives keep vigil at the Kathmandu airport while the search continues on steep, unforgiving terrain.
- Villagers hunting for Yarsagumba found the site only after following the smell of fuel, and the 43-year-old aircraft's record of about 21 accidents in Nepal is drawing scrutiny.
On a Sunday morning in late May 2022, a small Tara Air Twin Otter lifted from the river town of Pokhara bound for Jomsom, the high gateway to the Mustang region, and vanished from the sky within minutes. Its wreckage, scattered across a Himalayan gorge near Sanosware, became the grim resting place for twenty-one of the twenty-two people aboard, a loss that reached far beyond the mountains to families in Nepal, India, and the German state of Hesse. As rescuers work the slopes for the last missing traveler, the crash reopens an old question that hangs over flight in these valleys: how much risk the mountains will accept from the machines that cross them.
Aerial photographs showed pieces of an aircraft scattered across rock and moss on the side of a mountain gorge in Nepal. On Monday, rescuers reached the crash and recovered the bodies of 21 of the 22 people who had been aboard a Tara Air plane the day before. Kathmandu airport spokesman Tek Nath Sitaula said the search for the last person was still going on.
The work was slow and hard. Some bodies were trapped beneath the wreckage, and rescuers, using their bare hands, struggled to move the heavy debris.
The Twin Otter turboprop had been flying a scheduled route from Pokhara, the resort town 200 kilometers west of Kathmandu, to Jomsom. The trip usually takes about twenty minutes over deep river gorges and mountain peaks. On Sunday the plane lost contact with the tower, its last signal sent at 10:07 a.m. near Sanosware in Mustang district. Relatives waited at the airport through most of the day for news of their loved ones.
Among the passengers were four Indians, two Germans from Hesse, and Nepali families, including one of four members and one of seven. Hesse officials said they had to assume the two German travelers were dead and had already informed their families.
It was local villagers, searching for the prized Yarsagumba fungus, who finally found the wreckage. One of them said they had heard of the missing plane on Sunday but could only reach the site on Monday morning, guided by the smell of fuel. The plane seemed to have struck a smaller mountain before crashing into a larger one.
Built by De Havilland of Canada, the Twin Otter has flown in Nepal for about fifty years and has been involved in roughly twenty-one accidents there. With one person still unaccounted for, its troubled record is likely to draw close attention.
Aerial photographs of the crash site show pieces of an aircraft strewn across rocks and moss on the side of a mountain gorge in Nepal. On Monday, rescuers working that mountainside recovered the bodies of 21 of the 22 people aboard a Tara Air plane that went down the day before. Kathmandu airport spokesman Tek Nath Sitaula said the search for the last person was continuing.
The recovery was slow. Some of the bodies were pinned beneath the wreckage, and rescuers, working with their bare hands, struggled to shift the heavy metal debris.
The aircraft was a Twin Otter turboprop on a scheduled flight from the resort town of Pokhara, 200 kilometers (125 miles) west of Kathmandu, to Jomsom. The trip normally takes about 20 minutes, across deep river gorges and mountaintops. On Sunday the plane lost contact with the airport tower. Flightradar24.com tracking data shows the 43-year-old aircraft left Pokhara at 9:55 a.m. and sent its last signal at 10:07 a.m., at an altitude of 12,825 feet (3,900 meters). The army said it crashed at Sanosware in Mustang district, close to Jomsom.
Relatives waited at the airport for most of Sunday for word of their loved ones. Tara Air said four Indians and two Germans were aboard, while the three crew members and the remaining passengers were Nepali. The German news agency dpa reported that the two Germans, a man and a woman, were from the western state of Hesse. A spokesperson for the Hesse state interior ministry told dpa that officials had to assume the two were no longer alive, and that Hessian police had already informed relatives and begun care measures. Local news reports said the passengers included two Nepali families, one of four members and one of seven.
Jomsom is a popular destination for foreign hikers who use its mountain trails, and for Indian and Nepalese pilgrims visiting the revered Muktinath temple.
According to local news reports, villagers who had been searching the area for Yarsagumba, a fungus commonly called Himalayan Viagra, found the wreckage. The Setopati news website quoted one of them, Bishal Magar, as saying that they heard about the missing plane on Sunday but could only reach the site on Monday morning, after following the smell of fuel. Magar said the plane appeared to have clipped the top of a smaller mountain before slamming into a larger one.
The Twin Otter was originally built by the Canadian manufacturer De Havilland. It has served in Nepal for about 50 years and, according to aviationnepal.com, has been involved in about 21 accidents in that time. The plane, with its top-mounted wing and fixed landing gear, is prized for its durability and its ability to take off and land on short runways. Production ended in the 1980s, and another Canadian company, Viking Air, brought the model back into production in 2010.
With one person still unaccounted for, the search continues, and the Twin Otter's long accident record in Nepal is likely to draw attention.
Citações Notáveis
We have to assume at this point that the two people are no longer alive.— Spokesperson, Hesse state interior ministry, quoted by dpa
Villagers heard of the missing plane Sunday but reached the site Monday morning by following the smell of fuel.— Bishal Magar, villager, quoted by Setopati (paraphrased)
Quer a matéria completa?
Leia o original em FOX 4 News ↗
Transportation