Three crew members and 19 passengers were on board the aircraft. The flight was operating between the Nepalese cities of Pokhara and Jomson.
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A plane carrying 22 people was reported missing over a mountainous area in Nepal, the airline Tara Air announced on Sunday May 29. “Contact was lost with a domestic flight heading to Jomsom from Pokhara”said a spokesperson for the Kathmandu-based company.
The twin-engined Twin Otter had taken off from the city of Pokhara (central-western Nepal) at 9:55 a.m. (local time) before losing radio contact. Three crew members and 19 passengers were on board the aircraft, he said. “We are trying to locate the area where the plane could be”Tara Air spokesman Sudarshan Bartaula told AFP. “Police and army rescue teams are on the way”he added.
Phanindra Mani Pokharel, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry, said two helicopters had been dispatched for the search operations. But visibility is poor and bad weather could slow down search operations. Jomsom, known as a starting point for trekkers in the Himalayas, is a 20-minute flight from Pokhara, the country’s second largest city, 200 km west of the capital Kathmandu.