Missing Nepal’s Tara Air plane found: Names of passengers and crew onboard

Ashok Kumar Tripathi, Dhanush Tripathi, Ritika Tripathi and Vaibhawi Tripathi – four members of a family from Mumbai – are among 22 people onboard a small plane the Twin Otter 9N-AET belonging to Nepal’s Tara Air that went missing on Sunday in the mountainous region of the Himalayan nation minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara and later was found at Kowang in Mustang, reports suggest.

The Twin Otter 9N-AET plane took off at 10:15 am from Pokhara, and lost contact with the control tower 15 minutes later, according to an airline spokesperson.

There are four Indian nationals, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers besides a three-member Nepali crew, said Sudarshan Bartaula, a spokesperson at the airlines.

“Tara Air flight 9NAET that took off from Pokhara at 9.55 AM today with 22 people onboard, including 4 Indians, has gone missing. Search and rescue operation is on. The embassy is in touch with their family. Our emergency hotline number : 977-9851107021,” the Indian embassy in Nepal tweeted.

Here’s the list of passengers and crew members onboard:

Indian passengers: Ashok Kumar Tripathi, Dhanush Tripathi, Ritika Tripathi and Vaibhawi Tripathi

Other passengers: Indra Bahadur Gole, Purushottam Gole, Rajan Kumar Gole, Mick Grat, Basant Lama, Ganesh Narayan Shrestha, Raveena Shrestha, Rasmi Shrestha, Rozina Shrestha, Prakash Sunuwar, Makar Bahadur Tamang, Rammaya Tamang, Sukumaya Tamang, Tulsadevi Tamang and Yuvi Wilner.

Crew members: Captain Prabhakar Ghimire, co-pilot Utsav Pokharel and air hostess Kismi Thapa.

The aircraft was scheduled to land at Jomsom Airport in the Western mountainous region at 10:15 am.

The aircraft lost contact with the tower from the sky above Ghorepani on the Pokhara-Jomsom air route, aviation sources said.

According to an air traffic controller at Jomsom Airport, they have an unconfirmed report about a loud noise in Ghasa of Jomsom.