BHUBANESWAR: Even as search and rescue were called off due to inclement weather for Tara Air flight that crashed in Nepal on Sunday, kin of the Odia family that was on board the ill-fated aircraft still hold on to the last hope of miraculous survival.
The flight carried Ashok Kumar Tripathy (55), his wife and two children. Elder brother of Ashok, Satyabrata Tripathy was lost for words as the devastating news broke. “I had spoken with Ashok about two days back. We still hope and pray that my brother and his family survive the crash,” he told The New Indian Express.
Satyabrata, a former president of Kalahandi district consumer court, said he came to know about the crash through social media at about 12 pm. He immediately contacted the Indian Embassy in Nepal to collect details about his brother and other family members. He lives in Sonepur town.
Ashok’s wife Vaibhavi, son Dhanush and daughter Ritika were among the 19 passengers on board the Twin Otter 9N-AET plane belonging to Nepal’s Tara Air. Ashok is an HR consultant by profession and lives in Jaydev Vihar area of the Capital. His wife works in Mumbai and their two children stay with her.Son Dhanush completed his studies at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS Pilani) and he had recently joined a private company.
“Ashok and his wife left for Nepal on May 27. They had plans to visit Pokhara and Jomsom. We last spoke with Indian Embassy in Nepal at about 5.30 pm today and they informed us that the search and rescue operation was called off due to inclement weather conditions,” said Satyabrata. Some friends of Ashok also urged the Odisha government to coordinate with the Centre and help Nepal with a more vigorous search and rescue operation near the crash site.
Ashok is the fourth-youngest among the five brothers and their late father Krushna Prasad Tripathy was a district judge. Ashok’s twin brother Rajen stays in Pune. Tara Air flight 9N-AET took off from Pokhara at 9.55 am on Sunday with 22 people on board, including four Indians before it lost contact. Search and rescue operation is on. The embassy is in touch with their family, tweeted the Indian embassy in Nepal.