Plane with 22 onboard, including 4 Indians, goes missing in Nepal

Fate of people remains unknown as bad weather at the possible air crash site hampers search and rescue operation

KATHMANDU: The fate of 22 people, including four members of an Indian family, on board a Nepalese airlines plane remained unclear as bad weather made it difficult to locate the aircraftthat went missing on Sunday morning in the mountainous region of the Himalayan nation minutes after taking offfrom the tourist city of Pokhara.

The condition of the plane belonging to Tara Air that took offat 10:15 am from Pokhara, nearly 200 kilometers east of Kathmandu, is unknown till now, the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said.

The turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane had four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers besides a three-member Nepali crew, said Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesperson at the airlines. The Canadian-built plane was flying from the city of Pokhara to Jomsom, a popular tourist town in central Nepal. Flights between the two cities are usually 20-25 minutes long. The airline issued the list of passengers which 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.

“As the search operations carried out in possible sites have been hindered due to hilly terrain and bad weather, the status of the aircraftis still unknown,” the CAAN said. “However, the Rescue Coordination Centre remains open for 24 hours and the search operations will be intensified through air as well as land routes,” it added.