Tara Air Tara Air: Nepal Army to resume search on Monday for missing plane in Dhaulagiri mountain range
Kathmandu: The Nepal Army said they would resume search and rescue operations on Monday morning in the Dhaulagiri mountain range for the Tara Air Twin Otter plane that is believed to have crashed in cloudy weather with 22 people onboard, including four Indians and two Germans.
Nepal Army Spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal said search has been stopped due to darkness and will resume Monday morning.
“The search team will look for an appropriate place and stay there overnight,” Silwal added.
The army has sent a team of 65 personnel on foot while choppers were also sent from Kathmandu. But aerial search was affected due to bad weather conditions.
Two helicopters and Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Armed Police Force ground troops continued the search earlier on the day, according to Chief District Officer (CDO) of Mustang Netra Prasad Sharma.
Two helicopters – one each of Fishtail Air and Nepal Army – and about 100 security personnel have been deployed since Sunday afternoon to look for the missing plane.
According to Sharma, search and rescue efforts have been concentrated in the Dhaulagiri mountain range.
The helicopters have not been able to fly constantly due to bad weather.
The Tara Air plane flown by Captain Prabhakar Ghimire was carrying 22 persons including three crew members and 19 passengers. The passengers also included 13 Nepalis.
On Sunday morning, Tara Air’s 9 N-AET twin-engine aircraft flying from Pokhara to Jomsom at 9:55 am, went missing, after reaching the Ghodepani area of Mustang, according to the Tara Air.
The plane was flying just behind a Summit Air plane and both the planes contacted the Jomsom Airport after entering Mustang, according to Chief of Jomsom Airport Pushkal Sharma.
“The Summit plane landed. While trying to contact the Tara plane just behind to give permission for landing, contact could not be established,” Sharma said. “The pilot did not hint about any problem in the plane to the air traffic controller.”
The planes going to Jomsom generally contact the Jomsom tower after reaching Lete. Sharma revealed that Captain Ghimire talked normally as in other times after entering Mustang.
The plane was flying at an altitude of 12,825 feet when it lost contact at 10:07 in the morning, according to Flightradar data.
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