Twin Otter Tara Air 9N-AET Crash in Nepal .
 

Plane Enroute to Jomsom From Pokhara
19 Passengers on Board along with 3 Cabin Crew .
2 Germans 4 Indians 13 Nepali .

Flight radar
/data/aircraft/9n-aet#2c093470

Twin Otter Tara Air 9N-AET Crash in Nepal
 

At the time of writing, the status of the flight is "missing/lost contact", though your conclusion that it has gone down may well turn out to be the case.

Sadly , Not many places to safely land . It has Officially not been Confirmed . Army Rescue Helicopters have not been able to reach the supposed place where it may have gone down due to Bad Weather .

The Place Where it was last Contacted has a History where communications have gone down before eventual crash.

Officials say Plane Found at Larjung ,near Lete . Plane is in a slight Ravine . At ground, police are near the site but cannot reach. Helicopters not able to land so far after several attempts .


Pilot Last contact was to Ask the Wind at the Airport .

Interesting news coming about Pilot's Phone being active/ringing and showing location where the search is being carried out .

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....749cc1f8c1.png

On May 27th 9N-AET returned five times to Pokhara, on May 28th once.

not sure what definition of interesting that is. Because presumably if the person who owned the phone survived they would surely be answering it. But yes it is interesting in that it is giving the probable location of the aircraft in whatever condition it is in. And given no answer …..

perhaps it has enough signal to give a location Ping but not enough to carry any text or voice message. I say hopefully.

All that means is that his phone is still switched on and serviceable. It implies nothing about the condition of the pilot.

I cannot see any Flights to Jomsom , they don't seem to be tracked on Flight Radar . Another Plane on Final at Jomsom Heard the Pilot's Communication about Wind conditions . That plane from Summit Air also doesn't seem to be tracked .

Contrary to popular belief, FR24 doesn't have worldwide coverage. It's dependent mainly on Mode S coverage crowd-sourced from enthusiast feeders with the necessary kit.

9N-AET has been spotted, crashed in a "small" ravine near the mouth of the Lamche River, and a Nepalese rescue team is now on its way to see if there are any survivors.
The aircrafts crash location was discovered by Nepal Telecom triangulating the pilots cellphone, utilising the GPS network.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/a...campaign=cppst

All Search and Rescue have been postponed ,There is Snowfall and Lack of Light they have not yet reached the supposed crash site.

From the Times of India 17.10 BST
 

Tara Air's 9N-AET twin-engine aircraft, which went missing in the mountainous district of Mustang in Nepal on Sunday morning, was found at Kowang village of the district, Nepal airport officials said. According to the information given by the locals to the Nepal Army, the plane crashed at the mouth of the Lamche river under the landslide of Manapathi Himal. There is no word on survivors, and the fate of the 22 people on board, Very sad....

Satellite Imagery has shown the Plane , 6 Kilometers short of the Jomsom Airport .Rescue to go ahead in the Early Morning . All regular private Heli Flights for tomorrow are stopped , until the Rescue Mission is complete at the said satellite location .

Edit : Unclear if it was Satellite or ELT signal imposed on Map . ELT was provided by Bangalore, India Based Authorities .

A photo provided by the Nepalese military shows the Twin Otter wreckage scattered over a steep rocky slope. I'd have to opine, the chance of finding survivors is nil.

https://newsroompost.com/world/nepal...g/5106382.html

Reports have Confirmed No Survivors .Bodies are being retrieved .

Deaths include All Three of the Crew Members . Pilot , Co -Pilot and Air Hostess

Another Off Duty Pilot .

7 Members of Same Family , 4 Members of 2 separate families. One of the family is Indian . And 2 German nationals .

R.I.P.

Looks like a copy of Tara-193

Crash: Tara DHC6 near Pokhara on Feb 24th 2016, aircraft impacted terrain

It could be . Although 9n-AET Aircraft is 43 years old , Tara 193 was brand new and well equipped .

Similarly , 17,000 hour experience Pilot and Newly Trained First Officer. Joined Company last year , 25 years old . Captain was Flying.

Japanese news source, with photo of wreckage, saying 21 of 22 bodies found so far.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/6f...30f00037cc35a9

In 1978 I needed to get to Baglung in Nepal. It had an airfield but only two flights a week. The days on the outbound journey didn't work with my schedule so I flew to Pokhara on an RNAC Twin Otter took a bus and the walked for two days.

On the way back I hiked to the airfield (a grass strip on a peninsular several hundred feet above the river with nothing more than a hut). Checked in we then set about waiting. After a while we were told the plane had gone to Lukla but the weather had turned and it was stuck there. "It will come tomorrow". Nobody believed him so we hiked back to Pokhara and next morning went to get a plane back to Kathmandu. We saw it (another RNAC Twin Otter) being loaded with freight (mainly salt I seem to recall) and it set off for Jomsom. It came back an hour later, unloaded all the freight, we boarded and headed back to Kathmandu.

I'm not sure much has changed.

Reported that the CVR was cut from the wreckage this morning.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....292c0f6192.jpg
Final Report to come in 60 Days after review is completed .
CFIT , TAWS turned off , Deteriorating Weather .

Re TWAS , The text says inhibited , not turned off , could have been U/S . whether this occurred before departure would be interesting to know. Normally in VFR it is not a MEL item since in VFR you are supposed to remain VMC and fly visual.clear of terrain . Deteriorating weather is a factor but not the cause, as, in VFR if you cannot maintain VMC you have to turn around ( easier said than done in the mountains, hence the issue. )
Reading that list I think points 5, 6 and 7 are closer to the actual cause.

ATC Watcher,

a small but important detail: You can fly VFR in less than VMC (and hence IMC) in most countries in certain types of airspace (Golf; Delta - with clearance). Its the grey area that gets you through the grey when flying low and still able to see sufficiently (usually 1sm, but varies a little according to aircraft and country).

No, you can fly VFR under lower reduced visibility /ceiling condiions (e.g. VFR special) and even lower ones in helicopter , but never in IMC conditions. My point here is that separation with terrain in VFR is always visual, not using instruments ,and this whether you are in normal or reduced VMC . And we not talking about inadvertently becoming IMC in VFR, a different discussion.

What is less than VMC minima? IMC. Reduced visibility/ceiling is IMC.

Have not read the report but it would not surprise me to find out that the TAWS was intentionally turned off to prevent nuisance warnings in a mountainous airport. We used to do that in a previous job as it was distracting. At some airports, it is a requirement to get close to terrain for takeoff and landing. We already know that there is terrain close to us.

Of course, you better know what you are doing, regardless of the availability of TAWS.