KATHMANDU: The last rites of the four members of an Indian family, who were killed along with 18 others in the Tara Air plane crash in Nepal’s mountainous Mustang district, were performed on Thursday on the banks of Bagmati river near Pashupatinath temple here.
The bodies were brought to Aryaghat Cremation Centre at Pashupatinath Temple premises on the banks of Bagmati River on Thursday morning. It took two days to complete the post-mortem of the 22 bodies of those killed in the plane crash on Sunday.
The Canadian-built turboprop Twin Otter 9N-AET plane was carrying four Indians, two Germans and 13 Nepali passengers, besides a three-member Nepali crew when it crashed minutes after taking off from the tourist city of Pokhara.
Businessman Ashok Kumar Tripathi (54) and his Thane-based estranged wife Vaibhavi Bandekar Tripathi (51) were on a reunion trip to the Himalayan country along with their son Dhanush (22) and daughter Ritika (15) when the tragedy struck.
Tripathi’s elder brother and wife were among the relatives who were present when the last rites of the four members of the family were performed at the electric crematorium near the revered Hindu temple.
The bodies of 13 other passengers and three crew members were cremated through traditional means by burning. There was a big crowd at the Pashupatinath Temple to see the cremation.
The Pashupatinath Temple in Kathmandu, situated along the banks of the Bagmati River, is one of the most important Hindu temples in Nepal.
The postmortem of all the bodies were completed on Thursday morning only. Ten of the bodies were intact and 12 others were deformed. according to sources at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital in Maharajgunj.
Rescuers on Monday recovered 21 bodies from the wreckage site of the plane belonging to Tara Air. On Tuesday, the last body was also retrieved from the wreckage site.
The Nepal government has formed a five-member commission of inquiry headed by senior aeronautical engineer Ratish Chandra Lal Suman to find out the cause of the Tara Air plane crash.
According to a preliminary investigation carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN), bad weather was the reason behind the crash of the plane.
The black box of the plane was also retrieved by a team of experienced international and national mountain guides from the crash site on Tuesday.
The black box, also known as the cockpit voice recorder, records radio transmissions and other sounds in the cockpit, such as conversations between the pilots, and engine noises. It could offer vital clues about the crash in which all 22 people on board were killed. (PTI)