THANE: A missing plane in the Himalayan nation of Nepal and an accident in the north-eastern state of Sikkim hogged public conversation in Thane on Sunday as eight of those involved in the two incidents are from here.
A small plane of Nepal's Tara Air went missing in the morning in the mountainous region of that country minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara. As per officials, among those on board are Ashok Kumar Tripathi, his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar (Tripathi) and children Dhanush and Ritika, residents of Kapurbawadi here.
A burning wreckage of the aircraft has been spotted though the fate of the 22 on board is unknown, Nepalese officials said amid search operations there.
In the second incident, a car skidded off the road and fell into a ravine several hundred metres deep in Kedung Bhir in north Sikkim at around 8m on Saturday night.
Among those killed are Thane residents Suresh Punamia, Toral Punamia, Devanshi Punamia and Hiral Punamia, all from the same family, officials said.