Missing flight with 22 onboard found in Nepal's Mustang district
India Today
According to the Nepal Army, the crashed Tara Air flight with 22 people on board, including four Indians, has been found.
Amidst inclement weather, a Nepal Army helicopter has located the site where the small plane of a local airline with 22 people on board, including four Indians, has possibly crashed, media reports quoted the country’s civil aviation authority as saying on Sunday.
The Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Nepal's Tara Air took off at 10:15 am from Pokhara, and lost contact with the control tower 15 minutes later, according to an airline spokesperson.
A Nepal Army helicopter carrying 10 soldiers and two employees of the civil aviation authority landed on the bank of a river near the Narshang Monastery, the possible site of the crash, according to My Republica newspaper.
“A Nepal Army helicopter has landed on the river bank near Narshang Gumba," Prem Nath Thakur, general manager of the Tribhuvan International Airport was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
Interestingly, the airplane was located after Nepal Telecom tracked down the cellphone of the airplane’s Captain Prabhakar Ghimire through the Global Positioning System (GPS) network.
“The cell phone of Captain Ghimire of the missing aircraft has been ringing and Nepal Army’s helicopter has landed in the possible accident area after tracking the captain’s phone from Nepal Telecom,” Thakur said.
“We have also sent Nepal Army and Nepal Police personnel on foot for the search," he added.
