A Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, similar to one that went missing Feb. 24, 2016 with 21 people on board, at the Lamidanda airstrip east of Kathmandu.(Photo: Prakash Mathema, AFP/Getty Images)
A small plane crashed in a mountainous region of Nepal on Wednesday, killing all 23 people abroad, local media reported.
The Twin<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Otter, operated by the domestic<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Tara Air,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>departed from Nepal’s second largest city of Pokhara bound for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Jomsom, a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>starting point for<span style="color: Red;">*</span>mountain treks, at<span style="color: Red;">*</span>8.15 a.m. local time but lost contact after takeoff,
the Nepali Times reported. The cause of the crash is under investigation.
Yeti Airlines, which owns Tara Air, tweeted that the plane's wreckage was found near<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the small village of Tirkhe Dhunga in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Myagdi district in western-central Nepal at 1.25 p.m. local time. It said the plane was new and had a flying time of less than 300 hours.
Army spokesperson<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Brigadier General Tara Bahadur Karki<span style="color: Red;">*</span>told the
Kathmandu Post that soldiers found the wing and tail section of the plane, but were still searching for the fuselage.
Police constable Phool Kumar Thapa Magar, who was one of the first to arrive at the<span style="color: Red;">*</span>crash site, told the newspaper that the aircraft crashed on “very treacherous terrain."
"The plane was on fire and it is still burning,” he said.
Two foreigners —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a Chinese national and a<span style="color: Red;">*</span>Kuwaiti national —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were among those aboard,
the Nepali Times reported. It added that the pilot was a veteran who was six months away from retirement.
Before Wednesday's crash, more than 120 people were<span style="color: Red;">*</span>killed in nine plane crashes in Nepal during<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the last 10 years,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
the Nepali Times<span style="color: Red;">*</span>said. It said the crashes<span style="color: Red;">*</span>were<span style="color: Red;">*</span>caused by planes flying into mountains in<span style="color: Red;">*</span>cloudy conditions, overloading, and weather and mechanical issues.
Powered By WizardRSS.com |
Full Text RSS Feed
