22 confirmed dead in Nepal plane crash as bodies recovered

Dec 16, 2010, 4:46 GMT

Kathmandu - The bodies of all 22 people on board a plane that crashed in a mountainous area of eastern Nepal were recovered Thursday after poor weather and the difficult terrain hampered recovery efforts.

The De Havilland Twin Otter turboprop disappeared from radar screens Wednesday five minutes after taking off from an airport in Lamidanda en route to Kathmandu, the Civil Aviation Department said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known but was being investigated, said Suman Pandey, general secretary of the Airlines Operators Association.

'The weather in the mountains is deceptive,' Pandey said. 'It could have been both the weather and the difficult mountain terrain that caused the crash.'

The plane was carrying 19 passengers, one of whom was a US citizen, and three crew members when it crashed in the Okhaldhunga district, 150 kilometres east of Kathmandu. Most of the passengers were returning from a pilgrimage to a Hindu shrine.

A recovery team of 50 soldiers and police was dispatched and faced difficulty in recovering the bodies.

'The plane hit a mountain at over 9,000 feet [2,740 metres] height and fell some 300 feet [90 metres] downhill,' Bigyan Raj Sharma, a police spokesman, said.

'The impact of the crash was great, and the bodies and the remains of the aircraft were scattered,' he said.

High winds disrupted rescue operations Wednesday, forcing two rescue helicopters to make emergency landings.

'The weather in the region made it difficult to locate the bodies, but we're preparing to collect the bodies and airlift them to Kathmandu,' said Eastern Regional Police Office Chief Bhisma Prasai.

Nepal has a poor aviation safety record. In October, a helicopter crashed in the Mount Everest region killing two people. In August, 18 people, including six foreigners, were killed when a turboprop plane crashed on its way from Kathmandu to the Everest region.

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