KATHMANDU, Nepal (Washington Insider Magazine) – An airline representative confirmed to CNN that an aircraft controlled by Nepal’s Tara Air with 22 passengers went missing early Sunday morning.
The plane was traveling from Pokhara to Jomsom, a major tourist destination in Nepal’s central region. According to Nepal’s Civil Aviation Authority, the plane took off at 9:55 a.m. local time and lost communication with air traffic control around 12 minutes into the flight. The flight time between the 2 cities is about 20-25 minutes.
According to the spokesperson, there were nineteen passengers and 3 crew members on board.
According to Binod B.K., a Nepalese home ministry official, investigators believe the tragedy was caused by bad weather.
According to the administration, the 22 individuals missing include 13 Nepalese citizens, 4 Indians, and 2 Germans. Two passengers’ nationalities are unknown.
Pokhara is located approximately 80 miles to the west of Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital.
An airline executive told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the aircraft lost contact with the control tower 5 minutes before it was scheduled to land in Jomsom. Tara Air mostly operates Twin Otter turboprop airplanes produced in Canada. According to the flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the missing plane took off for the first time in April 1979.
The Nepalese Military has been engaged to assist in the hunt for the missing aircraft, according to the spokesperson, however search-and-rescue operations have been slowed by bad weather.
Locals reported witnessing something burning earlier during the day, and it was thought that a possible accident site had been discovered.
Later on Sunday, Nepal Army spokesman Narayan Silwal revealed on Twitter that 1st responders had halted operations until Monday owing to a lack of sunlight and bad weather, which blocked helicopters from going into the region of the plane’s last known location. Since the morning, dense cloud cover had been present in the Pokhara-Jomsom area, according to the nation’s weather service. Due to the weather, one search chopper was forced to retreat to Jomsom.
A land-based search party has been dispatched to the region near Mount Dhaulagiri, the world’s 7th-highest peak at 26,795 feet, according to police official Prem Kumar Dani.
Nepal has a history of aviation accidents, as it is home to 8 of the world’s fourteen highest peaks, including Everest. Its climate is unpredictable, and airstrips are often located in remote highland places.
A Tara Air flight crashed in 2016 while traveling the same route as the one that went missing on Sunday. A recently procured Twin Otter aircraft was flying in clear weather at the time of the incident.
A US-Bangla Airlines plane from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed and went up in flames on landing in early 2018, killing 51 of the 71 passengers on board.
