Bodies of 22 Nepal plane crash brought to Kathmandu for post-mortem

KATHMANDU: The bodies of 22 people, including four Indians, killed in the plane crash in Nepal's mountainous Mustang district on Sunday, have been brought to Kathmandu where the mortal remains would be handed over to their families after the post-mortem on Tuesday.

The Canadian-built turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew when it crashed minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara, officials said.

Rescuers on Monday recovered 21 bodies from the wreckage site of the plane belonging to Tara Air. On Tuesday, the last body was also retrieved from the wreckage site.

According to Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) General Manager Prem Nath Thakur, the bodies of 10 victims were brought on Monday evening and the bodies of the remaining 12 were brought here by a Nepal Army helicopter on Tuesday.

All the bodies have been sent to the Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital for post-mortem examinations. The bodies will be handed to the families Oof the victims after the post-mortem, the official said.

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, officials said.

According to a preliminary investigation carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), bad weather was the reason behind the crash of the plane.

The black box of the plane was also retrieved by a team of experienced international and national mountain guides from the crash site on Tuesday and it will be transported to Kathmandu.

The black box, also known as the cockpit voice recorder, records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots, and engine noises.

The modern planes have two black boxes that includes the flight data recorder which records more than 80 different types of information such as speed, altitude and direction, as well as pilot actions and performance of important systems.

The black box could offer vital clues about the crash in which all 22 people on board were killed.

Due to the geographical remoteness and adverse weather conditions, the search and the recovery mission were delayed. The plane was found scattered at an altitude of 4,200 metres, a four-hour uphill hike from the centre of Thasang Village Municipality.

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