Gex
Tara Airplane – 9N-AHH Twin Otter – which had 23 passengers and three crew members vanished early in the morning en-route Pokhara-Jomsom and has been believed to have crashed in Myagdi’s Rupse.
According to Jasoda Subedi, chief air traffic controller at Pokhara Airport, the plane took off from Pokhara at 7:50 and lost contact after it reached the airspace of Ghorepani, Myagdi at around 8:10 am. The flight captain Roshan Manandhar had made last contact with us (Pokhara Airport) at Godhepani area, from where Jomsom Airport takes the control of the plane.
The Captain said “see you back, Ghorepani normal” immediately after air traffic control charge was transferred to the Jomsom Airport.
The visibility of Pokhara Airport was 5km when it took off. However, the plane did not made any contacts for minutes with the Jomsom Airport. “We thought the plane would have changed the flight path en-route due to bad weather or other issues.”
Later on, repeated contacts with the Captain from both airports failed. Two helicopters have been sent from Pokhara for the search mission. Among the passengers, the airline officials said that a Chinese, a Kuwaiti and two infants were on board.
