A twin-engine aircraft operated by Nepal’s Tara Air went missing on Sunday and was discovered in Kowang in the Mustang district.
A 43-year-old jet operated by a Nepalese private airline that went missing on Sunday with 22 people on board was discovered at Kowang in Mustang.
“According to the information given by the locals to the Nepal Army, the Tara Air plane crashed at the mouth of the Lamche river under the landslide of Manapathi Himal. Nepal Army is moving towards the site from the ground and air route,” Nepal Army spokesperson Narayan Silwal was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
According to an airline representative, the Tara Air Twin Otter 9N-AET plane took off from Pokhara at 9:55 a.m. and lost communication at 10:07 a.m.
A Nepal Army helicopter carrying 10 troops and two civil aviation authority officials landed on the bank of a river near the Narshang Monastery, the potential crash location.
Prem Nath Thakur, general manager of Tribhuvan International Airport, as stating, “A Nepal Army chopper has landed on the riverbank near Narshang Gumba.”
Interestingly, the jet was found after Nepal Telecom traced down the plane’s Captain Prabhakar Ghimire’s smartphone via the Global Positioning System (GPS) network.
“The mobile phone of the missing aircraft’s captain, Captain Ghimire, has been ringing, and the Nepal Army’s chopper has landed near the possible accident area after tracing the captain’s phone through Nepal Telecom,” Thakur added.
“We have also dispatched Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel on foot to conduct the search,” he added.
The airline released a list of passengers, four of whom were identified as Indians, in addition to two Germans, 13 Nepalese passengers, and a three-member Nepalese crew.
“Tara Air flight 9NAET, which took off from Pokhara at 9.55 a.m. today with 22 passengers on board, including four Indians, has vanished. A search and rescue operation is underway. The embassy has made contact with their relatives. Our emergency number is +977-9851107021 “The Indian embassy in Nepal issued a tweet.
Tara Air flight 9NAET, which took off from Pokhara at 9.55 a.m. today with 22 passengers on board, including four Indians, has vanished. A search and rescue operation is underway. The embassy has made contact with their relatives.
The plane was supposed to land at Jomsom Airport in the western mountains around 10:15 a.m.
According to aviation sources, the plane lost communication with the tower while flying above Ghorepani on the Pokhara-Jomsom route.
An unsubstantiated report of a loud noise in Ghasa, Jomsom, was received by an air traffic controller at Jomsom Airport.
According to airline sources, the weather on the Pokhara-Jomsom route is currently gloomy with rain, which is hindering search activities.
Earlier, Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand urged authorities to step up their search for the missing plane.
According to officials, the aircraft was last seen turning toward Dhaulagiri Peak.
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