Nepal flight crash: All 20 passengers declared dead

Kathmandu: All the passengers, including four Indian nationals, aboard the crashed Tara Air flight were confirmed dead, the airline's passenger list released on Monday informed. The 9 NAET twin-engine aircraft was carrying 19 passengers and three crew members from Pokhara to Jomsom and lost contact minutes after takeoff on Sunday, IANS reported.

Sudarshan Bartaula, the spokesperson of Tara Air, informed that 20 bodies were retrieved so far from the crash site. He added that a search effort of 100 people, including officials of the Nepal Army, Armed Police Force, Nepal Police, mountaineering rescue officials and locals, are scouring the area for the remaining two bodies.

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased. He tweeted, I am sad to hear that all passengers on board the Tara Air are dead."

The deceased Indian nationals were identified as Vaibhavi Banderkar, Ashok Kumar Tripathy, Dhanush Tripathy and Ritika Tripathy. Among the dead, there were seven members of a Nepali family too.

The Indian embassy in Kathmandu has contacted the family members of the deceased, while the Nepal administration informed that once the bodies are brought to the capital, they will be handed over to their families.

Nepal's Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism has formed a five-member probe committee on Monday to probe the reasons behind the crash, which happened in the Mustang district of the country. The wreckage was found, in Sanosware, Thasang-2, only after 24 hours after the flight's crash.

The rescue mission was hampered by bad weather on Sunday, which was resumed on Monday.

After takeoff, the contact with the flight was lost in 12 minutes. Soon after the aircraft went out of contact, the Nepal Army deployed its personnel in the Lete area for search. Tara Air's statement said that the plane was carrying 13 Nepalese, four Indians, and two Germans.