Cloudy weather prevents search teams from searching for a missing plane in Nepal carrying 22 people near the tourist city of Jomsom.
Key points:
- Nepalese authorities say a search helicopter aborted its flight due to bad weather
- Tara Air’s flight carried four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalese
- The plane was flying from Pokhara to Jomsom
The Tara Air flight took off from the tourist city of Pokhara, about 125 km west of the capital, Kathmandu, to Jomsom, about 80 km northwest, authorities said.
The plane lost contact with the control tower five minutes before landing in Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site, an airline official said on condition of anonymity.
A statement from the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said a search helicopter had aborted its flight due to bad weather.
“A search helicopter returned to Jomsom due to bad weather without locating the plane,” the Nepal Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement.
“The helicopters are ready to search from Kathmandu, Pokhara and Jomsom once the weather conditions improve. Army and police search teams have marched to the site.”
The airline said the plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 16 Nepalese, including three crew members.
The flight tracking website Flightradar24 reported that the missing De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft with registration number 9N-AET made its first flight in April 1979.
The country’s meteorological office said there had been heavy clouds in the Pokhara-Jomson area since morning.
Police Officer Prem Kumar Dani said a rescue and ground search team had been sent to the area near Mount Dhaulagiri, the seventh highest peak in the world at 8,167 m.
Nepal has a record of air accidents.
Its weather can change suddenly and the runways are usually located in mountainous areas that are difficult to access.
In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on the 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 crashed into a hill while trying to land in Kathmandu.
Reuters / ABC