Update | Hong Kong tourist among 23 people on board doomed flight in Nepal
The Tara Air plane was flying from Pokhara to Jomsom, authorities say
Smouldering wreckage and scattered bodies were all that remained of a small plane that crashed in central Nepal, claiming the lives of the 23 people on board, including a Hong Kong resident.
Mak Siu-ying was among the travellers who died on a Tara Air flight, according to a passenger manifest. Mak used a Hong Kong passport to book her flight, the South China Morning Post has discovered.
“The wreckage of the plane was found in a completely burnt state in Solighopte in Myagdi district,” Nepal’s aviation minister Aananda Prasad Pokharel said, adding that bodies could be seen scattered around the wreckage. Local police said they found no survivors.
The plane was carrying three crew and 20 passengers, including a Kuwaiti national and 18 Nepalese citizens.
Hong Kong’s Immigration Department confirmed Mak was a Hong Kong resident. A spokeswoman said the department was trying to contact her family.
Weather conditions were good when the plane took off for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination in the Himalayas about 20 minutes’ flight from Pokhara, 225km west of Kathmandu.