Emergency workers have found the bodies of all 23 passengers and crew killed when their plane crashed into a mountainside in western Nepal, the army said Thursday.
The police and army returned to the crash site at first light after abandoning recovery efforts late Wednesday due to bad weather in the remote Himalayan district where the Twin Otter turboprop aircraft came down.
The site in Myagdi district is around 16,000 feet (4,900 metres) high in the Himalayas and can only be reached on foot or by helicopter.
"The bodies of all 23 people on board have been found by the team at the crash site," Nepal Army spokesman Tara Bahadur Karki told AFP.
Karki said the bodies will be taken by helicopter to the nearest airport in the town of Pokhara, around 220 kilometres (160 miles) west of Kathmandu.
Strong winds had prevented helicopters from reaching the crash site early Thursday but the airline, Tara Air, said the weather cleared in the afternoon.
"Three helicopters have been deployed to bring the bodies," said airline spokesman Bhim Raj Rai.
The Tara Air flight from Pokhara to Jomsom -- about a 20-minute journey -- was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, including a Chinese national and a Kuwaiti.
The rest were from Nepal and two were children.
The government said it had formed a committee to investigate the cause of the tragedy, the latest in a series of fatal aviation accidents in the impoverished Himalayan nation.
Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier founded in 1998 which services many remote destinations across Nepal.
It suffered its last fatal accident in 2010, when a plane chartered by a group of Bhutanese tourists crashed into a mountainside in eastern Nepal.
The country, which is still reeling from a devastating earthquake last April, has in recent years suffered a number of air disasters.
Most have been attributed to inexperienced pilots, poor management and inadequate maintenance.
The European Union blacklisted all Nepal's airlines in 2013.
AFP
Thu Feb 25 2016
A Nepalese army rescue team member stands in front of wreckage of the Twin Otter aircraft at a crash site near the village of Dana in Myagdi District. -AFP
Kuda lumba dikesan cuba 'curi-curi' naik kereta api
Haiwan itu dilihat muncul di stesen Warwick Farm di NSW dan berlari menuju ke garisan kuning platform seperti menunggu ketibaan kereta api.
Bajir Dubai: UAE masih bergelut selepas ribut
Operasi di lapangan terbang dan hab perjalanan utama kekal terganggu selepas ribut melanda Selasa lalu.
AWANI Pagi: Jom derma darah, jalankan tanggungjawab sosial anda
Awani Pagi bersama Afiezy Azaman & Nursyazwani Saiful Sham membincangkan mengenai kepentingan menderma darah khususnya untuk membantu mereka yang alami masalah darah disebabkan keturunan atau menghidapi kanser darah. Timbalan Pengarah I, Pusat Darah Negara KKM, Dr Tun Maizura Mohd Fathullah mengajak masyarakat di luar sana tampil menyahut seruan murni ini.
Piala Asia B-23: Indonesia ajar Australia cara main bola
Walaupun Australia mendominasi perlawanan pada separuh masa kedua, kehandalan benteng pertahanan Indonesia mudah mematahkan serangan demi serangan.
Situasi terkini letusan Gunung Ruang di Sulawesi
Untuk berkongsi perkembangan terkini letusan Gunung Berapi Ruang, di talian secara Google Meet ialah Feri Ariyanto, komunikasi badan nasional pencarian dan pertolongan (Basarnas) Manado Sulawesi.
Colombia bergelut masalah air, takungan negara kering
Fenomena El Nino melanda di Colombia pada penghujung 2023, menyebabkan suhu tinggi dan kemarau.
Letusan Gunung Ruang: Gelombang tsunami boleh capai 25 meter
Heruningtyas berkata, potensi tsunami ini mengancam di kawasan sebelah barat Pulau Tagulandang.
Iran beri amaran Israel terhadap tindakan ketenteraan lanjut
Iran memberitahu Majlis Keselamatan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu (UNSC) bahawa Israel mesti dipaksa untuk menghentikan sebarang operasi ketenteraan selanjutnya terhadap kepentingan Iran.
Penumpang kecewa penerbangan dibatalkan tanpa notis awal
Beberapa penumpang di Lapangan Terbang Sulawesi, Indonesia merungut penrbangan mereka dibatalkan tanpa notis awal susulan gunung berapi Ruang meletus sejak kelmarin sehingga mengeluarkan abu bahaya ke udara sekali gus membahayakan keselamatan.
Amaran tsunami boleh mencapai 25 meter
Badan Geologi, Kementerian Tenaga dan Sumber Daya Mineral Indonesia mengingatkan potensi tinggi gelombang tsunami yang diakibatkan oleh letusan Gunung Ruang di Kabupaten Sitaro, Sulawesi Utara mencapai 25 meter.