Passenger plane with 22 on board goes missing over Nepal

A small plane with 22 passengers on board went missing during cloudy weather in Nepal on Sunday and authorities were forced to suspend a search for the aircraft as night fell.

“The search operation has been suspended for today because of the darkness,” a police spokesperson said.

“We could not make any progress. The search will resume early tomorrow.”

The plane at hand, a De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter operated by Tara Air, is yet to be found by officials due to bad weather and mountainous terrain.

The aircraft took off on Sunday morning for a 20-minute flight but lost contact with the control tower five minutes before it was scheduled to land, according to government officials.

It departed from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125km west of the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, and was heading for the popular tourist and pilgrimage site Jomsom, The Guardian reported.

According to state-owned Nepal Television, villagers saw an aircraft on fire at the source of the Lyanku Khola river at the base of the Himalayan mountain Manapathi, in a district bordering Tibet.

“Ground search teams are proceeding toward that direction,” Tara Air spokesperson Sudarshan Gartaula said.

“It could be a fire by villagers or by cowherds. It could be anything.”

The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) said a team was on its way to the area.

The plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans, and 16 Nepalis, including three crew, according to the airline.

Data from the flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the missing aircraft first flew in April 1979.

Nepal has a record of air accidents, due in part to it being home of the world’s 14 highest mountains.

The mountainous nations weather is prone to sudden change and the airstrips are often located in areas that are hard to reach.

In early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 on board.

All 167 aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it crashed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu in the early 90’s.

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De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter Flightradar24 Jomsom kathmandu Lyanku Khola Manapathi nepal Pokhara Tara Air tibet