Nepal Plane Crash: Tara Air's De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter, all you need to know- IN PICS

A turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Tara Air went missing on Sunday morning in a mountainous region in Nepal and had four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew.

 

Tara Air is the newest and biggest airline service provider in the Nepalese mountains, according to the airline website. It started its business in 2009 with the mission of helping develop rural Nepal.

The plane with 22 onboard, including 19 passengers and 3 crew members was travelling from tourist town of Pokhara, 125 kilometres (80 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu, and was bound for Jomsom, about 80 km (50 miles) northwest of Pokhara, a popular tourist and a pilgrimage site. 

Tara Air was operating a De Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter plane, which has been flying in Nepal for 50 years now. Due to treacherous terrain, small planes are used to reach high altitude cities. The plane had 21 known accidnets in last 50 years. 

In 2016, all 23 people aboard were killed when a plane of the same airline flying the same route crashed after takeoff. A plane belonging to Agni flying from Pokhara to Jomsom crashed near Jomsom airport on May 14, 2012, killing 15 people.

 

The wreckage of a plane lost in Nepal’s mountains was found Monday scattered on a mountainside and 14 of the 22 people on board were confirmed dead, the army said. Rescuers recovered 14 bodies from the crash site, said Teknath Sitaula of Tribhuwan International Airport in Kathmandu.

Nepal is home to eight of the world's 14 highest mountains, including the world's highest peak, Mount Everest, and has a record of air accidents, mostly small aircrafts, who find it difficult to land on a tough terrain.