Kathmandu, February 25
All 23 people, who were on board Tara Air plane (call sign 9N-AHH), which took off for Jomsom from Pokhara airport at 7.57 am, died when the plane crashed at Tikhe Dhunga, Myagdi.
The plane had lost contact with the control tower at 8.10 am, triggering frantic searches involving a private chopper from Pokhara and a Nepali Army copter from Kathmandu. Locals suspected that the plane could have crashed at Dana as they had heard the sound of what they called an ‘explosion’.
At around 9 pm, a relative of a passenger on board the aircraft reported that he had managed to place a call (The phone went unanswered). A rescue team tried to trace the phone and conducted a search around Ghoptebhir, the Rupse Fall and the vicinity, but cloudy weather conditions hampered the search.
In the afternoon, a team comprising police personnel and locals found the wreckage of the plane at Kekarbutta, Dana VDC. They found some bodies lying here and there. The team comprising two police personnel and a few locals could not undertake rescue efforts. Later, Nepali Army, Armed Police Force and Nepal Police personnel arrived on the site. Despite repeated attempts, helicopters could not land at the site, due to bad weather.
Initially, security personnel found 17 bodies. Later, it was confirmed that all 23 had died on board.
