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Nepal plane crash: Black box of Tara Air recovered; all 22 bodies retrieved from crash site

The Tara Air plane was found in a crashed state on Monday morning, 19 hours after it went missing amidst bad weather. (AP)

With one more body being recovered from the Nepal plane crash site today, so far 22 bodies have been found including four Indian nationals and three crew members.

Chief District Officer Netra Prasad Sharma of Mustang also informed on Tuesday that 10 bodies have been shifted to Kobang from the crash site and others are in the course of being airlifted to Kathmandu.

The Himalayan Times reported on Tuesday, that the black box of the turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane was recovered from the crash site by a team of experienced international and national mountain guides.

The recovery process was delayed

The Tara Air plane was found in a crashed state on Monday morning, 19 hours after it went missing. The recovery process was delayed due to geographical remoteness and adverse weather conditions.

As the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, Sherpas and locals reached the crash site, a four-hour uphill hike from the centre of Thasang Village Municipality on Monday, the plane was found broken and scattered.

Tara Airlines has identified the four Indians as Ashok Kumar Tripathy, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathy) and their children Dhanush and Ritika. The family was based in Thane city near Mumbai.

The Canadian-built plane, flying from Pokhara to the popular tourist town Jomsom in central Nepal, was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew. The plane was bound for Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site, 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara, on what should have been a 20-minute flight.

The government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry headed by senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to find out the cause of the Tara Air plane crash.

In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.

In 1992, all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it ploughed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.

(With inputs from agencies)

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