One May 29 (Sunday) morning, a turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane operated by Nepal’s Tara Air went missing 15 min into the flight, losing communication with the ATC. The plane with 22 onboard, including 19 passengers and 3 crew members was travelling from tourist town of Pokhara, 125 kilometres (80 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, and was bound for Jomsom, about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara, a popular tourist and a pilgrimage site. After searching the plane for whole day, the Nepali Army reached spotted the crash site on late evening, but couldn’t reach the location due to treacherous terrain and bad weather.
On May 30 (Monday) morning, two rescuers of Army reached the crash site, confirming the crash, sharing first images of the wreckage. As per the initial reports, few bodies that have found are beyond recognition. Spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal of Nepali Army earlier said they have physically located the Tara Airlines plane crash site in the country’s Mustang district. The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane had four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers besides a three-member Nepali crew.
However, in a strange coincidence, a plane flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed near the Jomsom Airport on May 14, 2012, killing 15 people, making it the same month, and same route for the crash, 10 years apart.
The 2012 flight was operated by Agni Air, Nepal’s domestic airliner, flying a Dornier Do-228 plane. The company was flying from Pokhara Airport to Jomsom Airport on an unscheduled flight CHT. There were eighteen passengers, two pilots and a flight attendant on board.
As per the data, the Agni flight attempted to land at Jomson, but aborted the plan and made a go around. During the subsequent go-around, one of the aircraft’s wings impacted a hill, causing the aircraft to crash, killing 15 out of the 21 people on board.
Nepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including the world’s highest peak, Mount Everest, and has a record of air accidents, mostly small aircrafts, who find it difficult to land on a tough terrain.
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Tara Air is the newest and biggest airline service provider in the Nepalese mountains, according to the airline website. It started its business in 2009 with the mission of helping develop rural Nepal.
