Plane that disappeared with 22 people on board found in Nepal as rescuers search for survivors – World News

Rescue efforts were hampered by poor weather conditions on Sunday while the search continues for 19 passengers and three crew members aboard the Tara Air flight in Nepal

A missing plane with 22 people on board has been found in Nepal.

The search and rescue effort enters a second day after the Tara Air flight went missing 12 minutes after a 25-minute journey from Pokhara to Jomsom.

Army spokesman Narayan Silwal wrote on Twitter that troops had “physically located the site of the crash.”

Authorities believe bad weather was the cause of the incident. according to CNN.

Of the 22 missing, 13 are Nepalese nationals, four are Indian and two are German. The nationalities of two passengers are unknown. The flight carried 19 passengers and three crew members.

The Nepalese Army was called in on Sunday to help with the search effort before fading light and inclement weather prevented helicopters from flying to the area of ​​the plane’s last known location.

There had been thick cloud cover in the Pokhara-Jomsom region since Sunday morning, the Nepal Weather Bureau said, with one of the search helicopters being pushed back to Jomsom due to the conditions.

The plane lost contact with aviation personnel five minutes before it was scheduled to land in Jomsom, an anonymous source told Reuters.

Tara Air primarily flies Canadian-built Twin Otter turboprop aircraft. Flight tracking website Flightradar24 said the missing plane made its first flight in April 1979.

Nepal’s mountainous conditions have contributed to previous plane accidents, with the country being home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountains and the weather being unpredictable. Many airstrips are usually located in mountainous areas that are difficult to access.

Another Tara Air plane crashed on the same route in 2016, and two years later a US Bangla Airlines plane from Dhaka to Kathmandu crashed on landing and caught fire, killing 51 of the 71 people on board.