Tara Air Twin Otter crashes in Nepal

Tara Airlines aircraft
The aircraft involved (reg. 9N-AET) in 2009. Photo: © NA2359

A de-Havilland DHC-6-300 Twin Otter, operated by Nepalese domestic airline Tara Air, has crashed on a domestic flight from Pokhara to Jomsom earlier today.

The flight originally went missing at around 10am local time and had 19 passengers and three crew members on board. Four of the passengers were Indian, two were German citizens and the others were from Nepal. Search and rescue crews reached the crash site later in the day but so far no survivors were found. It is located near a remote village between the two airports and unfavorable weather conditions are hampering rescue operations. The following day it was confirmed that the aircraft impacted mountainous terrain a few kilometers north of Lete and everyone onboard was killed in the crash.

Tara Air was founded in 2009 as a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines and took over their STOL (Short Take-off and Landing) aircraft. The airline has suffered two previous accidents, one in 2010 when a Twin Otter crashed shortly after taking off on a flight to Kathmandu, killing 22, and another one on the same route when another Twin Otter impacted mountains due to bad weather in nearly the same place as today‘s accident, killing all 23 people on board.

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