Two days after the twin-engine aircraft operated by Nepal's Tara Air crashed in Mustang, all 22 dead bodies have been recovered from the site, reported news agency PTI, on Tuesday, 31 May.
Twenty-one bodies were recovered on Monday, while the last one was pulled out by rescuers on Tuesday. The passengers on board included four Indians – a couple and their two children.
According to a report by news agency ANI, the aircraft's black box has also been retrieved from the crash site and brought back to the base station, the rescuers said. Meanwhile, the postmortem of the bodies has started.
The Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) spokesperson stated on Tuesday afternoon that the rescue operation has been called off following retrieval of all the bodies, according to ANI.
After the aircraft was reportedly missing for several hours, the Nepal Army on Monday located the site of the crashed aircraft at Sanosware, Thasang-2, Mustang in Nepal.
'Rescue Operation Was Very Difficult': Spokesperson Overseeing Search Op
"Because of bad weather conditions rescue operation was very difficult even with 50-60 rescuers deployed," a spokesperson at TIA in Kathmandu overseeing the search operation told ANI.
Three helicopters were also engaged "in retrieving the bodies located by the rescuers from accident site to nearby base station," he added.
Earlier on Monday, it was said that 10 bodies have been taken to the base station in Khabang-Mustang, while two more bodies are being brought down.
Depending on the weather condition, the bodies will be flown to Kathmandu via Pokhara, a Nepal Army spokesperson told ANI.
The aircraft, which had the call sign 9 NAET was flying from Pokhara to Jomsom in Nepal. Besides four Indians and a three-member Nepali crew, there were two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers.
"The crash site lies at an elevation of about 14,500 feet while the team has been dropped at 11,000 meters height," the spokesperson said.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)
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