Makalu Air’s cargo plane 9N-AJU, which had gone missing since morning, has been found wrecked in the hilly region of Kharpunath Rural Municipality-2 in Humla district.

It has been reported that the bodies of two pilots found in the wrecked aircraft have been sent to a hospital in Surkhet for postmortem.

According to Chief District Officer (CDO) of Humla, Madhav Dhungana, the deceased pilots have been identified as Captain Aditya Nepal and Captain Kiran Bhattarai. Two helicopters of Mountain Air in cooperation with security personnel, were mobilised in the search operation.

The freight transporter aircraft was discovered wrecked and fragmented into three parts in Ekalbajkharka at around 11:00 am, CDO Dhungana informed.

The cargo plane laden with shipments had taken off from Surkhet airport at 6:15 am today and was scheduled to land at Simikot airport at 6:55 am. The aircraft had forced emergency landing after it met with technical disorder in the skies over Humla district.

Source: The Himalayan Times