BHUBANESWAR: The family members of Ashok Kumar Tripathy, who is feared dead along with his wife Vaibhavi Bandekar, son Dhanush and daughter Ritika in a plane crash near Thasang-2 in Nepal's Mustang district, will leave for Kathmandu on Tuesday morning.
Rescuers have so far pulled out 20 bodies from the wreckage of the crashed plane and all 22 on board, including three crew members, are feared dead. The Indian Embassy in Nepal contacted Ashok's twin brother Rajen Tripathy, who stays in Pune, and they requested him to reach Kathmandu. Ashok’s family members are yet to come to terms with the loss.
"My younger brother Rajen and son Anshuk along with some family members of Vaibhavi will leave from Mumbai for Nepal on Tuesday morning. The Indian Embassy has not shared much details but we suspect the recovered bodies are unrecognisable," said Ashok's elder brother, Satyabrata Tripathy.
Satyabrata recalled that Dhanush was very studious and Ashok planned a family vacation only after he completed his course from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani. "The incident has left us all shocked and Nepal Government must thoroughly investigate the matter," he said.
According to a preliminary investigation of Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), inclement weather condition was the reason behind the crash of the Tara Air plane in Nepal’s mountainous Mustang district on Sunday.
The Canadian-built Twin Otter 9N-AET plane went missing on Sunday morning, minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara. The ill-fated plane was enroute to popular tourist town Jomsom.