Nepal: 43-yr-old Plane Lost Contact With Control Tower 5 Mins Before Landing | 10 Points

The plane operated by Tara Air that went missing in Nepal on Sunday lost contact with the air traffic control tower five minutes before its scheduled landing.

Search and rescue teams on helicopters were dispatched to comb mountainous areas in and around the aircraft’s last known location in northern Nepal. It was finally spotted in Mustang district’s Kowang area, but its status is yet to be ascertained, said the chief of Tribhuvan International Airport.

Here is all you need to know about the 43-year-old plane operated by a private airline in mountainous Nepal:

1. Plane foundThe chief of the Tribhuvan International Airport said the plane had been found in Nepal’s Mustang district at a village called Kowang. The chief added that the status of the aircraft was yet to be ascertained, as per a report by news agency ANI.
2. Search and rescueHelicopters were dispatched earlier in the day to look for the plane in the mountainous regions of Nepal, in and around its last known location. But, officials said cloudy weather had made it difficult to fly into these areas. Civil aviation officials said, “Army and police search teams have left towards the site.”
3. Lost contact five minutes before landingOfficials said the plane lost touch with the control tower five minutes before landing at Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site. It lost contact with the tower from the sky above Ghorepani on Pokhara-Jomsom air route, aviation sources said. According to an air traffic controller at Jomsom Airport, they have an unconfirmed report about a loud noise in Ghasa of Jomsom.
4. Plane lost near world’s seventh-highest peakPolice official Prem Kumar Dani said a land rescue-and-search team had been sent to the area near Mount Dhaulagiri, the world’s seventh-highest peak at 8,167 m. The aircraft was last tracked taking a turn toward the Dhaulagiri Peak, officials said.
5. Four Indians on boardFour members of a family from Mumbai were among 22 people on board along with two Germans and 16 Nepalis, including three crew members. Seven of the passengers are women. The crew was led by captain Prabhakar Prasad Ghimire. Utsav Pokhrel is co-pilot while Kismi Thapa is the air hostess. The Indians were identified as Ashok Kumar Tripathi, Dhanush Tripathi, Ritika Tripathi, and Vaibhawi Tripathi. Other passengers were Indra Bahadur Gole, Purushottam Gole, Rajan Kumar Gole, Mick Grat, Basant Lama, Ganesh Narayan Shrestha, Raveena Shrestha, Rasmi Shrestha, Rozina Shrestha, Prakash Sunuwar, Makar Bahadur Tamang, Rammaya Tamang, Sukumaya Tamang, Tulsadevi Tamang and Yuvi Wilner.
6. Flight detailsThe plane took off from the tourist town Pokhara, some 125 km west of capital Kathmandu. It was scheduled to land at Jomsom Airport in the western mountainous region at 10.15 am.
7. Type, make and ageIt is a 43-year-old plane operated by Tara Air, a private airline. Flight-tracking website Flightradar24 said the missing De Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft with registration number 9N-AET made its first flight in April 1979. Tara Air is the newest and biggest service provider in the Nepalese mountains, according to the airline website. It started business in 2009 with the mission of helping develop rural Nepal.
8. Weather conditionsThe country’s weather office said there had been thick cloud cover at Pokhara-Jomsom area since morning.
9. Poor track recordNepal is home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains, including Everest. It has a record of air accidents as the weather in the country is highly unpredictable. It changes suddenly, and many airstrips are located in remote mountainous areas.
10. Previous air accidentsIn early 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines flight from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 out of 71 people on board. In 1992, all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane were killed when it ploughed into a hill as it tried to land in Kathmandu.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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