Nepal plane crash: 4 members of a Thane family among missing passengers 

Four members of a family from Thane went missing in a Tara Airlines plane crash in Nepal that was found at Kowang in Mustang after two hours. The family members were among 22 people onboard the 43-year old plane operated by Tara Air.  

The family members are 54-year-old Ashok Tripathi, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar-Tripathi (51-year-old), son Dhanyasya Tripathi (22-year-old) and daughter Ritika Tripathi (18-year-old). The Tripathi family lived in the Rustomjee Athena building in Thane. They were in Nepal for a holiday and had changed their flight from Nepal’s Pokhara, according to an India Today report.  

The Nepali Army physically located the site of the Tara Airlines plane crash, its spokesperson Brigadier General Narayan Silwal was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. Brig. Gen Silwal said on Twitter, “The search and rescue troops have physically located the plane crash site. Details will be followed.” 

Nepali Army resumed search ops on Monday morning after they were halted due to snowfall on Sunday. Some of the bodies found at the crash site were beyond recognition and the aircraft was completely crashed. Total 19 passengers were onboard the plane and the aircraft crew members included Captain Prabhakar Ghimire, flight operator Kismi Thapa, crew members Arka and Utsav Pokharel. 

Identified passengers are Ashok Tripathi, Vaibhavi Bandekar-Tripathi, Dhanyasya Tripathi, Ritika Tripathi, Prakash Sunuwar, Raveena Shreshtha, Rashmi Shreshtha, Ganesh Narayan Shreshtha, Rozina Shreshtha, Makar Bahadur Tamal, Rammaya Tamal, Sukumya Tamal, Tulsadevi Tamal, Inder Bahadur Gole, Purushottam Gole, Rajankumar Gole, Mike Greet Graf, Basant Lama and Uwe Wilner.  

The plane was flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, popular tourist town in central Nepal. The Canadian-built aircraft took off from Pokhara, nearly 200 kms east of Kathmandu, at 10:15 am.  

(With India Today, agency inputs)