21 bodies recovered from crash site

Kathmandu: No survivors have been found from the Tara Air plane that crashed in Nepal's mountainous Mustang district on Sunday with 22 people on board, including four Indians, minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara.

Till about 9 pm, 21 bodies have been recovered from the crash site, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal said.

The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Tara Air took off at 9:55 am from Pokhara and lost contact with air control about 12 minutes later at 10:07 am, according to the Civil Aviation Authority.

The Canadian-built plane, flying from the city of Pokhara to the popular tourist town Jomsom in central Nepal, was carrying four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew.

The airline's passengers list identified 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.

Pieces of the wreckage of the aircraft were found after nearly 20 hours since the plane went missing, the Nepal Army said on Monday. This was because the search and rescue operation was not possible on Sunday due to snowfall.

Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Bartaula said the bodies were scattered over a 100-metre radius from the main impact point. The plane slammed into the mountain breaking into pieces, he said.