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Rescuers Say Little Hope of Survivors from Nepal Plane Crash
December 16, 2010

In this photo taken on June 1, 2010, a Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft is seen at the Lamidanda airstrip, some 120 kms east of Kathmandu. A small passenger plane operated by Tara Air carrying 22 people has gone missing December 15, 2010 after taking off from an airport in eastern Nepal, the civil aviation authority said. (AFP Photo) In this photo taken on June 1, 2010, a Tara Air DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft is seen at the Lamidanda airstrip, some 120 kms east of Kathmandu. A small passenger plane operated by Tara Air carrying 22 people has gone missing December 15, 2010 after taking off from an airport in eastern Nepal, the civil aviation authority said. (AFP Photo)
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Rescuers in Nepal said Thursday they hold out little hope of finding any survivors after a passenger plane crashed in a remote mountainous area with 22 people on board, including one American.

The Twin Otter plane smashed into a mountainside shortly after taking off from a small airstrip in eastern Nepal bound for the capital Kathmandu, 140 kilometres (90 miles) to the west. The cause of the crash is not yet known.

An army rescue team has reached the crash site after it was located in an aerial search early Thursday, but authorities said there was little chance any of the 19 passengers and three crew would be found alive.

"The plane that went missing on Wednesday has been found crashed into a hillside in eastern Nepal," Dimlesh Lal Karna, head of the rescue operation, told AFP.

"The aircraft smashed into pieces on impact and there are unlikely to be any survivors."

The airline, Tara Air, has said one of the passengers is an American citizen, although the US embassy was not immediately able to confirm this.

The others were initially said to be Nepalese, but reports Thursday suggested they may be Bhutanese pilgrims who claimed to be locals to qualify for a cheaper air fare.

Khotang, the district in eastern Nepal the plane took off from, is not a major tourist destination, but it is home to two sites of religious significance, a Hindu temple and a Buddhist monastery.

Air travel is popular in impoverished Nepal, which has only a very limited road network. Many communities, particularly in the mountains and hills, are accessible only on foot or by air.

Aviation accidents are relatively common, particularly during the summer monsoon, when visibility is usually at its worst.

Last month a helicopter crashed near Mount Everest during a mission to rescue two stranded climbers, killing the pilot and an engineer.

In August, a plane headed for the Everest region crashed in bad weather killing all 14 people on board, including four Americans, a Japanese and a British national.

An investigation blamed the crash on a power failure. It said the plane's generator failed and the pilot did not follow the proper procedures to conserve the remaining battery power.

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic airline founded in 1998 which runs a service to many far-flung destinations across Nepal.

Yeti's last major accident was in 2008 when a passenger plane crashed on landing at Lukla airport, the gateway to Mount Everest, killing all 19 people on board, most of them German tourists.



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