UPDATE: 2022/06/01 10:09 EST BY GAURAV JOSHI

No survivors were found.

The Nepal Army has confirmed that nobody onboard the Tara Air plane survived the crash.

No survivors found

Officials in Nepal have confirmed the unfortunate news that all 22 people onboard the Tara Air flight have lost their lives. The army had located the site of the plane crash in Sanosware, Thasang-2 of Mustang district in Nepal. The de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter was performing a flight for Tara Air when it went missing on the morning of May 29th.

The search and rescue team made their way towards the site from the ground and by air and found the aircraft totally destroyed from impact. There were three crew members and 19 passengers onboard, including 2 German nationals, 4 Indians, and 13 Nepali citizens.

Difficult terrain and weather conditions in the area posed an added layer of challenge in the rescue mission, with helicopters deployed to locate the crashed aircraft being recalled initially due to heavy snowfall.

What happened?

While it's too early to determine the cause of the accident, official statements trickling in and eyewitness accounts have provided some information about the flight's final moments.

The primary cause of the accident is believed to be poor weather, with Nepal's Civil Aviation Authority stating that the aircraft had been flying from the city of Pokhara to the popular tourist town Jomsom in central Nepal when it lost contact with air traffic control about 12 minutes into the journey. With the two destinations just 45 miles apart, the flight itself wasn't long, lasting about 20 to 22 minutes.

Reportedly, two other flights of another carrier had taken off before Tara Air and landed safely. According to the Indian Express, one of the passengers of yesterday's crash, Ashok Tripathy, had called his travel agent in Kathmandu just before takeoff, who said,

“Around 9.45 am, two aircraft of Summit Air took off followed by Tara Air at 9.55 am. Before taking off, Ashok Tripathy had called me to say that things were okay. Those two flights of Summit Air landed safely and then we heard the news that Tara Air had lost contact with ATC.”

Locals around the crash site described hearing "an unusual sound as if there was some bang," said a police officer in the area. Chief District Officer Netra Prasad Sharma informed ANI over the phone, saying,

"The aircraft was seen over the sky of Jomsom in Mustang and then had diverted to Mt. Dhaulagiri after which it hadn't come into contact."

Accident-prone area

Nepal is home to some of the highest mountains in the world, making it a pretty challenging place for airplanes to land and takeoff. In fact, the world's deepest gorge that goes down three miles vertically between Dhaulagiri and Annapurna mountains runs through the district of Mustang, where the crash happened.

This is the second such incident in six years involving Tara Air. In 2016, 23 passengers died when a Tara Air Twin Otter aircraft was performing the same flight as yesterday's from Pokhara to Jomson and crashed into the mountains.

Please continue to check back with us as we will be adding more information as it becomes available.