
ALL PICS: BIKRAM RAI
A Beechcraft 1900D of Buddha Air (9N-AEK 1900D) crashed in Bishankhunarayan-2, Chundanda of Lalitpur at around 7.30am on Sunday morning.
Nineteen passengers including 10 Indians, one Japanese, two Americans and three crew members were boarded in the plane. The mountain flight was returning to Kathmandu and lost contact while it was preparing to land.
The crew members were pilot JB Tamrakar, co-pilot Padma Adhikari, Air Hostess Asmita Shrestha. Three Nepali passengers on board were Sharada Karmacharya, Jagan Karmacharya and Nirajan Karmacharya. Nirajan was rescued alive but died while undergoing treatment at B& B Hospital, Lalitpur.
Eighteen bodies have been recovered from the crash site, informed Superintendant of Police (SP) at Lalitpur Police Office, Bhim Bahadur Thapa.
The Indian nationals killed in the crash are Pankaj Mehta, Chhaya Mehata, S Nagaraja, T Nagaraja, L Nagaraja, HD Nagaraja, D Jalosubrisum, DP Jalosubrisum, P Jalosubrisum, and Nagraja Talosubrisum. Toshinori Jehma and US nationals Natali Nailun and Andrew Wade were also killed in the plane crash.
The Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation has constituted a three-member probe commission under the chairmanship of former Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), Rajesh Raj Dali to investigate the crash.
The black box of the aircraft was found after a four-hour long search around the accident site.
