KATHMANDU (REUTERS) – Nepal’s army said on Monday (May 30) it has located the crash site of a plane that went missing on Sunday with 22 people on board.
“Search and rescue troops have physically located the plane crash site,” army spokesperson Narayan Silwal said on Twitter, posting a picture of the wreckage with the plane’s tail number clearly visible.
The plane had taken off on Sunday morning for a 20-minute flight but lost contact with the control tower five minutes before it was due to land, government officials said.
The plane departed from the tourist town of Pokhara, 125km west of the capital, Kathmandu. It was headed for Jomsom, which is about 80km north-west of Pokhara and is a popular tourist and pilgrimage site.
State-owned Nepal Television said on Sunday villagers had seen an aircraft on fire at the source of the Lyanku Khola River at the foot of the Himalayan mountain Manapathi, in a district bordering Tibet.
The small aircraft was operated by a private airline and was carrying 19 passengers and three crew members.
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.
