Nepal: Wreckage of plane carrying 22 people found in Mustang

Four members of a family from India, 13 Nepali passengers, two German tourists, and three Nepali crew members are among the people missing since the crash.

The wreckage of a small plane, operated by a private airline in Nepal that went missing with 22 people onboard, was found two hours after the crash on Sunday.

The twin-engine aircraft had taken off from Pokhara town in Nepal on the day of the accident. The 43-year-old plane was operated by a firm called Tara airlines, and it had lost contact with the control tower minutes after take off.

"The aircraft was seen over the sky of Jomsom in Mustang and then had diverted to Mt. Dhaulagiri after which it hadn't come into contact," Chief District Officer Netra Prasad Sharma told news agency ANI. According to a local official, the wreckage of the plane was found in Sanosware, Thasang-2 in the Mustang district.

The rescue operations were hampered by bad weather on Sunday, and helicopters had to return without any success. However, the search and rescue operations resumed on Monday.

Nepal | Crashed Tara Air aircraft located at Sanosware, Thasang-2, Mustang

The aircraft with 22 people including four Indians onboard went missing yesterday.

(Photo source: Nepal Army) pic.twitter.com/W4n5PV3QfA
— ANI (@ANI) May 30, 2022

Four members of a family from India, 13 Nepali passengers, two German tourists, and three Nepali crew members are among the people missing since the crash. The family was on a court-mandated holiday with their children when the tragic incident happened.

"Vaibhavi and her ex-husband Ashok were mandated by a family court to go on a vacation of 10 days with their children every year after their divorce," said police officials, according to a report in Hindustan Times. The aircraft crew members included Captain Prabhakar Ghimirele, flight operator Kismi Thapa, and crew members, Arka, and Utsav Pokharelle.

Nepal is home to some of the world's highest mountains, including the mighty Mount Everest. It's not the first time the country has seen an air accident. A Tara Airlines Twin Otter plane flying the same route crashed in 2016, killing all 23 passengers onboard. Its wreckage was found in a forest.

In 2018, a plane from Bangladesh crashed in Kathmandu, killing 49 people onboard. The investigation had then revealed that the crash was caused by the pilot's "emotional breakdown" from work-related stress.