Nepal Crash: All Passengers, Including Family From Odisha, Believed Dead! 14 Bodies Recovered

Bhubaneswar: “We suspect all the passengers on board the aircraft are dead. Our preliminary assessment shows that no one could have survived the plane crash, but the official statement is due,” Phadindra Mani Pokhrel, spokesperson for Nepal home ministry, told ANI after 14 bodies were recovered at the plane crash site in the district of Mustang in northern Nepal on Monday.

According to local media, rescuers have pulled out 14 bodies from crashed Tara Air plane. “Some of the bodies of the passengers are beyond recognition. Police are gathering the remains,” a source told TOI. The bodies will be flown to Kathmandu for postmortem.

A family from Odisha, identified as Ashok Kumar Tripathy (53), his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar Tripathy (51) and their children Dhanush (24) and Ritika (15), were the only Indians onboard. The other passengers included two Germans and 13 Nepali nationals.

Vaibhavi and the children lived in Thane near Mumbai. She worked at a private firm in Mumbai. Ashok had moved back to his home state Odisha, where he worked as an HR consultant in the state capital. Ashok was from Sonepur in Odisha. Dhanush was an engineering graduate. The family was holidaying in Nepal and were supposed to return in a few days.

According to The Indian Express report, the couple “were separated and as per court orders, the children had to spend 10 days with their father every year” and this time “they were headed to Muktinath in Nepal”.

The aircraft went missing on Sunday soon after taking off from Pokhara on a short flight to Jomsom, a popular tourist and pilgrimage site, around 9.55 am local time.

A team led by Nepal police inspector Raj Kumar Tamang reached the crash site by air this morning. A team of 15 Nepali Army soldiers has also been dropped near the crash site to retrieve the bodies. While the crash site is at an elevation of about 14,500 feet, the team has been dropped at 11,000 feet, Nepal Army spokesperson was quoted as saying.